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Slovenia take hard-fought win against Belarus

18 Jan. 2021

Slovenia take hard-fought win against Belarus

Slovenia needed a win tonight to take valuable points with them into the main round. After trailing by six goals in the first half, they managed a great comeback to take a 29:24 win against Belarus. 

GROUP H  
Slovenia vs Belarus 29:25 (15:15)

Slovenia started their last preliminary round match out of sync. In defence, Jure Dolenec and Blaz Blagotinsek received early two-minute suspensions and in attack they lost control of their line conceding eight turnovers in the first quarter of the half as well going scoreless for almost 10 minutes at one point.

Consequently, Belarus managed to pull away causing Slovenia coach Ljubomir Vranjes to take a time-out at 4:9. The time-out didn't help as Belarus increased their lead to 6:12 in the 21th minute. 

However, afterwards, Slovenia mounted their comeback. Goals from centre back Miha Zarabec and left wing Blaz Janc reduced the deficit to three. Led by captain Dolenec, who scored three goals and assisted a fourth, Slovenia and Belarus were again tied, 13:13. 

“Belarus played a tough and good game against us. We had some problems in the first 15 to 20 minutes, where they went up to 6:12. That was tough, but then we started to fight for each other and came back step by step and equalized. It was nice to go with this feeling into the locker room. My team showed a fantastic character in this match and that’s what we want to see,” said a proud Vranjes after the match.

In the second half, it was Slovenia’s turn to take the lead. However, Belarus did not relent and right wing Uladzislau Kulesh leveled it again at 18:18. Slovenia then extended their lead to four goals and once more Belarus came back with three straight goals from Kulesh and one from Artsem Karalek to make it 23:24 with eight minutes left. 

However, Slovenia were able to restore the four-goal lead at the end, finishing the match with a side shot from centre back Dean Bombac into the top right corner of the goal. 

With the result, Belarus finish third in the group, and Slovenia have climbed the table into second where they have high expectations. 

 “We go to Cairo to take the top place in our group,” said Bombac after the match.
 
hummel Player of the Match: Jure Dolenec, Slovenia