PHOTO: Handball: Croatia Crushes China 33:22

Recovery of Ivano Balic is a great asset for the Croatian handball team.

- I finally played and the most important thing is that I am in no pain, and I did all sorts of sudden movements. It`s alright, I will be even better in the quarter-finals and I feel the team is getting its self-confidence back – said Croatian handball team player Ivano Balic after men's preliminary round Group A handball match against China at the Beijing 2008 Olympics Games.

Balic played for 12 minutes, but has not scored a goal out of his two attempts. However, the most important thing was for him to be included in the game and confirmed that everything was finally alright with the partial rupture of his right calf.

- It was very important for Ivano to appear on the court against China and not in the quarter-finals. The test has completely worked and I think we will be able to count on him more seriously in the next match. I actually wanted two things against China – to animate the team and give it self-confidence after two defeats and for nobody to be injured. We have had too many unfortunate situations so far. Reacting speed is the fundamental thing in handball for me and due to all injured players being absent, we have not had enough situation practices – Croatian handball team coach Lino Cervar was finally satisfied, after France and Poland had previously defeated Croatia.

- China is a very good team and the only thing it lacks is international experience so they do many technical errors. Still, they were in the lead with a five-goal advantage in mid-first part, while we had a black hole in the game, which should not happen in the quarter-finals – Cervar added, who was unaware of the outcome in the groups.

- It will be difficult whoever we get because, I repeat, everyone if tough. South Korea is a big surprise, they are in form and although they lack height and strength, they compensate everything with terrible speed and perfect technique. If we play with Korea, perhaps we will have a slight mental advantage because we have always won at big competitions. Iceland is a team whose players perform in the best leagues of the world – Spanish and German, they have excellent reserves, perhaps they are weak on the goal. Germany is the world champion and one should always be careful with them, although they are troubled by injuries as well- Cervar concluded.

Petar Metlicic scored only one goal in 40 minutes, out of only two attempts.

- I have no self-confidence, I haven`t been in the right form ever since my knee arthroscopy, but the important thing is that the team wins in the quarter-final match, even if I play poorly again. Two defeats in a row have shaken us, but remember the World Championship in Germany when we kept crushing everyone and then got stuck in the quarter-final against the French. Ivano is back and this is the most important thing now, I hope I will be animated again. I don`t know what the problem is exactly, because everything is fine with the knee, I`ve done a good job, but clearly, I haven`t played for a while – Pero Metlicic said.

Croatia will be playing the quarter-final match on August 20 and the opponent and the time are still not familiar.