Lino Cervar Excellently Timed Croatia’s Form

If Croatia will look like they did with Spain in their match against Sweden, they should not have too much to worry about.

How far can Croatia go at the World Handball Championship? After the match against Spain, all is possible. Everything. In a match where Croatia had 16 minutes of suspensions, they held better than ever.

The Spanish attack was stopped in the first half, when Croatia had 12 minutes of suspensions.

After Spain scored their second goal in the sixth minute of the match, Spain had to wait until the 13th minute to score again. The defence was fantastic. The same happened in the 42nd minute of the match. Spain scored their 16th goal and then they stopped until the 49th minute. Who else can do that to the Spaniards?

Alilovic made more saves than Baruffet and Hombrados together

One of the reasons for the excellent result was Mirko Alilovic, who was excellent. He alone gathered more saves (12) than his colleagues Baruffet and Hombrados together. Croatia was unstoppable in their counter attacks and half-counter attacks. Duvnjak was also unstoppable, who despite his youth, took an important role on his back. With a fantastic seven goals from eight attempts, few players can claim the same in a match against Spain.

Another thing is comforting to know in the Croatian team. Restrained and slightly unnoticeable in matches up until Spain, Pero and Blaz are returning to form. Blazenko Lackovic was unstoppable with his shots. He achieved a great six goals whilst Pero scored three from four attempts.

Excellently timed form

Lino Cervar, the coach of the Croatian national team, excellently timed the form of the Croatian team, who after the match against Korea was not promising much. Offence was missing shots, whilst the defence was letting players through, regardless of if they were playing 6-0 or 3-2-1. The attack was significantly improved in the matches against Kuwait and Cuba, but the defence did not. However, now all has changed. Up until their match with Croatia, Spain scored an impressive 40.6 goals per match, whilst against Croatia they scored around half that. Even the referees could not help them, who at the least brought disputable decisions, but that is a matter for another occasion.

Who will be the king of the hardest group at the World Handball Championship, we will know after Croatia plays against Sweden.

If the Croatian team plays like they did against Spain in their match against Sweden, then Croatian fans do not have much to worry about, because Croatia is once again strong in all positions, and what is most important, they are ready for the shiniest medal before their home crowd, who chanted so loud yesterday the grandstands nearly fell.