Co-hosts Croatia start main round with a bang

Cape Verde were outclassed at the Arena Zagreb in their opening main round game of the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, falling by 20-goals to co-hosts Croatia.

After a heavy loss to Egypt last time out, the Croatians will be happy to have traversed their African opponents with a full rotation, numerous scores and a full rest for key player, goalkeeper Dominik Kuzmanovic.

Ivan Pesic, replacing Kuzmanovic in goal for the whole 60 minutes, assisted by his defence, restricted their opponents to 24 goals in the match, the exact same total of goals scored by the hosts in the first half.

MAIN ROUND, GROUP IV
Cape Verde vs Croatia 24:44 (11:24)

Ahead of the game, while relishing the chance to test themselves against Croatia’s “world class” players, key line player Paulo Moreno and his Cape Verde side had admitted that their “final” of this world championship was their upcoming clash with Argentina.

On the other side, just under 72 hours ago, Dagur Sigurdsson’s Croatia team had lost by four goals to the global powerhouse that is Egypt (28:24), their first real test in a preliminary group also featuring Argentina and Bahrain.

Despite the loss, there was no panic from the Icelandic coach and his staff, just the knowledge that nothing had changed – they need to win all their main round games, against Iceland most importantly, and then Slovenia, to cement a quarter-final place.

Depending on results, they could afford a draw or even a loss and with the Cape Verde game the easiest of the three, on paper at least, he made one change, taking out Veron Nacinovic and bringing back in Josip Simic.

With Domagoj Duvnjak, Luka Cindric and David Mandic all still out with injury for the second game running, Sigurdsson now has a somewhat settled squad and after bemoaning the lack of counter-attacks against Egypt while using the 5-1 defence, he kept with a 6-0 against Cape Verde this evening.

With 13 minutes on the clock Croatia had threatened to pull away (11:6) but a time out from Jorge Rito and his Cape Verde side kept that in check, albeit briefly, as he side pulled two goals back.

This seemed to provoke the Croatians into another gear and by the 20-minute mark it 16:8, moving to double figures in the 27th minute (21:11). Pesic had stopped seven shots by this time, on his way to a best player award with 14 in total, while at the end other end, Mateo Maras was perfect on six goals.

A second push from Cape Verde came in the 40th minute, but they could not restrict a rampant Croatian attack, even with two time outs in close succession (54th, 58th minute).

The last 10 minutes saw the gap sit on +10 and right at the end, a Luka Klarica strike made it a perfect 20. Mario Sostaric ended with nine goals from nine attempts, including two seven-metres.

hummel Player of the Match: Ivan Pesic (Croatia)