Co-host nation Croatia opened their 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship campaign on Wednesday night (15 January) with a dominant performance on both sides of the ball, defeat Bahrain by 14 goals at a noisy and packed Arena Zagreb.

In a clash between two Icelandic coaches, it was Dagur Sigurdsson and his host nation side who ended all smiles, restricting their opponents to just five goals in the first 22 minutes.

GROUP H
Croatia vs Bahrain 36:22 (17:8)

It was the beginning of the end and the beginning of the beginning for players on Sigurdsson’s squad this evening in Croatia’s capital city as inspirational leader and captain Domagoj Duvnjak pulled on the famous chequered-white and red for his last tournament before national team retirement, while Ivano Pavlović and Josip Šimić both made their national team competitive debuts.

All three scored in this one-sided game as Bahrain could not cope with the strong defensive stand from the home side, led by hummel Player of the Match Dominik Kuzmanovic (12 saves from 21 shots – 57%, including eight in the first half) and the devastating attack with goals shared amongst 12 different players.

By the 22nd minute, Bahrain had scored just five goals despite Aron Kristjansson taking an early time out (16th minute) with his side six behind (9:3).

The half-time stats saw the Asian side almost register half of whatever Croatia had produced, highlighting the gulf in quality. The European attack efficiency was 63% compared to Bahrain’s 33% and it was a similar ratio for shooting efficiency (74%/47%), goalkeeper saves (50%/24%), turnovers (4/9) and attack duration (23.15 seconds/43.48).

More of the same came early in the second half as the score difference went to double figures (19:9) inside four minutes as Bahrain did not score for the best part of 10 minutes either side of the break.

At 21:9 down in the 38th minute Kristjansson took another time out and could be heard saying to his side ‘what are you doing?’, but their body language on court spoke volumes about the dominance of their opponents, with frustration evident every time Bahrain turned the ball over, or saw a shot saved.

Croatia, on the other hand, knew exactly what they were doing. An effervescent flow was evident in their play under Sigurdsson in his first world championship with the side, and Duvnjak, in his 10th, consecutive world championship appearance will be hoping this feeling continues all the way to the final game in Zagreb on 30 January – when the first semi-final is scheduled, and into February, with the final in Oslo on 2 February.

Both teams play again on Friday (17 January), with Bahrain facing Egypt and Croatia taking on Argentina.

hummel Player of the Match: Dominik Kuzmanovic (Croatia)