Croatia triumphs in Balkan duel
After the walk over in the first match against Italy Croatia was still hard to gauge. Are they still the level of the team that won gold in the last European championship? The result of the match says “yes”. Croatia wins easily 30:18 (16:9).
Who will be Germany’s opponent in the semi-final? That was the main question to be answered by the duel between Serbia and Croatia. Both teams had already won easily against Italy, the Serbians with an even higher goal-difference.
Whoever thought that the bronze winner of 2005 would be favourite for the duel was wrong. After a few minutes the champion already led 6:1.
But the Serbians hadn’t given up yet. The pursuit proved to be difficult though. Serbia was constantly stopped by the high standing Croatian defence while the Croatians spammed them with rapid counter-attacks and led 16:9 at half-time.
This didn’t change in the second half. Germany will have to keep an eye on the Croatian playmaker Oliver Lusic in the semi-final. He did whatever he wanted in the match against Serbia.
Coach Vojislav Bjegovic’s boys have more than just one player with individual qualities though. Tomislav Bosnjak has his back and Pero Jukic is just as good. Together they scored 15 goals for the 30:18 victory.
Goals Serbia:
Brakocevic 1, Nikolic 4, Micanovic 3, Durakovic 2, Radojevic 4, Tutic 2, Tomicevic 2
Goals Croatia:
Rozic 2, Perak 1, Lusic 3, Bosnjak 11, Jukic 2, Jusic 2, Crnojevic 6, Perak 2, Sculac 1
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