Top four dream for Bence Banhidi and Hungary just one game away

Hungary arrived in Zagreb from Varazdin on Sunday (26 January) for their quarter-final clash against the co-hosts of the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship after their 90km trip down the E65 road connecting the two Croatian cities.

And, once settled in the Croatian capital, they could enjoy some rest days without matches, with line player Bence Banhidi taking full advantage of the time off, once the post-match, pre-match and physio work had been done.

“We had one training, one tactical training and one video analysis session, prepared our bodies with our physios and, on Sunday, we had a normal gym training session,” said the 29-year-old to ihf.info about what he and the team have been busy with since arriving.

“So, it was not a ‘rest’ day, but these two days have been amazing for us. We needed them, because the last six games were very hard for the team and when you have two days free, it can give you a lot of energy.

“I like to be in my room to rest, but when I have time in the afternoon, I like to go to drink some coffee, to walk a little and to be in the fresh air,” explained the 2,06m Pick Szeged player about what non-handball activities he gets up to when not playing. “I like to be outside. I can be myself, like a normal person, just walking around the city and thinking about the game, because it will be a very important game to reach our dream.”

And that dream is?

“Our dream is to be in the top four,” says Banhidi without hesitation.

Coming into Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025, Banhidi had recorded 95 strikes across more than 19 hours-worth of game time in the IHF Men’s World Championship since making his debut at France 2017.

Banhidi has now added six further games and 15 goals to that – including his 100th in the competition when he scored his third and final goal against the Netherlands.

In his four previous IHF Men’s World Championship appearances, Hungary have had mixed rankings with the best, a fifth place in 2021, sandwiched in-between 7th in 2017, 10th in 2019 and 8th last time out, in 2023.

And if they beat Croatia on Tuesday (28 January), Hungary will be in the top four, equalling their best ranking since 1997 (4th) in 23 IHF Men’s World Championship appearances.

“When you want to be in the world championship quarter-final, to be in the top four teams, you need to win against the team who is your opponent, because it doesn't matter who it is,” he said.

“In 2021 we had France in the quarter-finals (Hungary lost after additional time) and they had an amazing team, and Croatia also have an amazing team here. 

“We had a lot of possibility in the previous championships – but now, for the first time in our lives, is the time to reach it, and I hope we will take this chance. You need to win. It doesn't matter who the opponent is, the possibility is here, and everything is in our hands. Everything is positive and fine around the team. We are happy to be here, and we are ready for the fight against Croatia.”

Fighting against Croatia is not just restricted to the seven players on court, but a sold-out, capacity 15,600 crowd in the Arena Zagreb, with just a few hundred Hungarian fans trying to make themselves heard.

“We know we will play front of 15,000 people in Croatia against Croatia, so it will be not easy. It will be a very tough game, but our team is ready [after] these two (rest) days. It's very positive for the team, it can give some plus energy for us,” he said.

“When I started playing handball, I didn't think about playing in arenas and crowds like this. I was a player who could shoot strong but who didn’t know to run one kilometre, and now I am here in Zagreb playing in a quarter-final.

“For us, if you play in front of this amount of people it can give us some power, more ambition and more motivation,” explained the three-time Hungarian Player of the Year. “During the game, we don't need to think about the supporters and the people, we think about fixing the defence, the attacks and our tactical things. This is the most important.

“We are like lions, because our defence is amazing, tough and hard; we are very heavy in defence. This is our power, and it can give us a lot of powers for turnovers because everything depends on our defence.

“We now have one game to reach our dream and a big goal in our career. I'm very happy to be here and to play against a team who is playing at home. I'm just happy and I would like to enjoy the game.”