Slovenia shock Poland to earn main round berth

Co-hosts Poland find themselves in hot water after conceding their second loss in as many matches at the 2023 IHF Men’s World Championship (23:32) against Slovenia. Patryk Rombel’s side was underwhelmed in attack, despite the support of 11,000 fans, as Slovenia clinched a main round berth, joining France as the two qualified teams from Group B.

Group B

Poland vs Slovenia 23:32 (11:17)

For five minutes and 16 seconds, Poland looked like they were going to give their fans the much-awaited win to finally pave the way to a great result in their co-hosting competition with Sweden. At least, that was what every Poland fan was thinking in the Spodek Arena in Katowice, where 11,000 of them created an electric atmosphere.

By that time, Poland were up 4:2 and looked to play the part both in attack and in defence, aiming to quickly erase the impression left three days ago when they conceded a 24:26 loss against France in the opening match of the championship.

And yet something happened after that moment. There were still cheers from the stands, but Poland’s attack was stopped in its tracks by a plucky Slovenia defence which constantly frustrated the co-hosts, much to the chagrin of the Polish fans who could not understand what was happening to their favourites.

First, a six-minute stint without a goal helped Slovenia forge a path to a 4:0 unanswered run that put them into the lead. Poland continued to keep close, only to lose their focus once again.

And this time, it was painful, with the co-hosts failing to score a goal for 11 minutes and 16 seconds and enabling their opponents to use a 6:0 unanswered run to create a six-goal gap at the break (17:11) that looked to be unassailable.

It spoke volumes that only one Poland player, right wing Arkadiusz Moryto, scored more than one goal – six in fact – with the other five players scoring once as their efficiency plummeted in the last minutes of the half. In total, Poland missed seven shots and turned the ball over four times, but the numbers do not tell the whole story. Too slow, too predictable, underwhelming… Poland were backed into a corner.

The path to redemption was probably going to be through the centre of Slovenia’s defence, where their main defender, line player Blaž Blagotinšek, was on thin ice after conceding two suspensions in the first 11 minutes of the match.

Yet Poland did not find a way to break their opponents, missing crucial one-on-one shots, failing from their 9-metre line and turning the ball over too many times. Eight minutes in the second half, Rombel was forced to take his second timeout as the gap ballooned to eight goals, 21:13.

Everything that could go wrong for Poland went wrong, from costly misses to penalties conceded for hitting the head of Slovenia’s goalkeeper to collapsed defensive actions. It surely was a Saturday to forget, a match to erase from memory as quickly as possible and reset, with Slovenia taking a commanding 32:23 win, their third in a row against Poland and the most lopsided in the history of the matches between the two teams.

This was only the fifth time in history that Poland started the IHF Men’s World Championship with two losses on the trot. The other editions were Sweden 1967, France 1970, Switzerland 1986 and France 2017.

With their second win in as many matches, Slovenia delivered a huge blow to Poland, and they also made it to the main round, where they will start with at least two points. Their toughest test yet will be on Monday when they face the reigning Olympic champions France, who are also on a two-match winning streak at Poland/Sweden 2023.

The co-hosts face a must-win match against Saudi Arabia to progress to the main round. If they qualify, Poland will still start the main round with zero points after losing against France and Slovenia, who are already qualified.

hummel Player of the Match: Blaž Janc (Slovenia)