Croatia first team into semi-finals of Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025 after incredible comeback

28 Jan. 2025

Croatia first team into semi-finals of Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025 after incredible comeback

Handball is a game of 60 minutes, but it took just one second of brilliance from Marin Sipic to put his Croatia side, and co-hosts, into the last four of the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship in Zagreb.

His last-second strike sealed a 31:30 victory for the home side in front of 15,600 fans in the Arena Zagreb, breaking Hungarian hearts as they had been on the cusp of their best IHF Men’s World Championship ranking since 1997 (4th).

The result for Croatia means they have now recorded their best ranking since 2017 (4th).

QUARTER-FINALS
Croatia vs Hungary 31:30 (16:16)

Dagur Sigurdsson’s Croatia side came into this clash with numerous injury concerns, and by the end of the match almost half the team were walking wounded on court.

With David Mandic out due to a hand injury, Marin Jelinic came into the side, but, as usual, the Icelandic coach surprised everyone, this time leaving out Igor Karacic from his match squad.

Karacic joined Mandic and Luka Cindric in the almost one-sided crowed, flecks of green specks dotted around the cavernous arena, hoping to make themselves heard by their Hungarian heroes on court.

In total, the game switched leads five times, Croatia opening the scoring, before Hungary went ahead (5:4) in the 11th minute, with the gap opening further (8:5) five minutes later. Ivan Martinovic was the beating heart of the Croatians on court, while Duvnjak was it off court, with all of those supporting Croatian looking on in concern when Martinovic left the court for treatment on the 15-minute mark.

Hungary stayed ahead by a trio of strikes until the 23rd minute (13:10), but, eventually, Croatia came back, led by two incredible long-range, open-goal strikes from Filip Glavas, taking his tally to five out of five at that point.

This helped his side pull level (15:15) two minutes before half-time, with the sides adding a solitary goal each to go into the break all-square.

The statistics were almost identical at the break, with Hungary goalkeeper Laszlo Bartucz ending with six – and he would go on to have a dominant display in goal, ending with 14 stops from an impressive 40 attempts from their opponents.

The opening stages of the second period saw Croatia Dominik Kuzmanovic stake his claim to being a one-man handball show, turning a 19:17 deficit into a 20:19 lead (38th minute) thanks to a handful of saves in a chaotic few minutes, including a standout block from Gergo Fazekas, then Miklos Rosta on the follow-up before throwing into open goal as Croatia found themselves a man down with Zvonimir Srna serving a two-minute.

But Hungary came back again (22:21, 45th minute) and looked like they finally had the number of Croatia, doing enough to stay ahead and frustrate the home supporters – especially when Bartucz used all his skill to block an Ivan Martinovic chance to put his side two ahead.

A red card to Hungary’s Patrik Ligetvari for a high tackle on Zvonimir Srna threatened to derail the Hungarian express, and when Domagoj Duvnjak finally made his first steps on court following the pause, Bartucz got his hand on the Croatia captain’s shot, pushing it behind the goal.

It appeared at this point that it would not be Croatia’s day, and with it, the end of the national team career of Duvnjak – retiring from duty after this world championship – and Karacic, the long-term teammates over three decades.

Duvnjak was on stage for just 44 seconds before returning to the bench, but his emotional rollercoaster ride for the whole match was on par with what the players were doing on court.

Zoran Ilic then put Hungary ahead by two once more (23:21) and a three-goal lead was back again (24:21, 47th minute). The Hungarian lead fluctuated across the next eight minutes, with a four-goal difference on the clock with five minutes to go (30:26).

The comeback eventually did come though, initiated by Mario Sostaric (30:27), but powered by Kuzmanovic, who made three saves in a row to make it a one-goal difference (30:29) as Sigurdsson took a time out with 99 seconds on the clock.

After a brief pause for some administration on the table, the game restarted and Srna shot home but the whistle had already been blown for a defensive foul. Hungary could not quite believe what was happening and when Martinovic went down in a heap after an Adrian Sipos arm, Croatia tried once more to equalise.

At this point, no-one in the arena expected anything other than additional time. A draw would have been a welcome result for the host side.

But in stepped Duvnjak once again, his 18-second play see him fouled on an attacking run, drawing a foul on the edge of Hungarian area and Filip Glavas the coolest guy in Croatia, slotting home the resultant seven-metre (30:30).

This allowed a full 43 seconds for Hungary to engineer a winning strike following their time out and Croatia, now with Ivan Pesic in goal, implored their fans to help them resist the wave of green, their defence again led by Marko Mamic in his outlying position of a 5-1.

As Hungary desperately looked for a breakthrough or seven-metre option against Croatia, they ran out of steam, eventually seeing a free throw under passive play blocked by the Croatian defence playing for the life of their captain, and again, following a block from the wing.

With 10 seconds left, Pesic scooped up the loose ball, toyed with a number of forward pass options and off-loaded to Srna. Duvnjak, back on court, acted a decoy to open the defence, leaving Sipic on the line to sink home unimpeded.

This prompted an explosion of emotion on court, the whole Croatian delegation running on in sheer joy. Karacic was crying, Glavas, Duvnjak and Martinovic were limping and the whole of Croatia were celebrating.

hummel Player of the Match: Zvonimir Srna (Croatia)