In the last game of Day #2 Croatia calmly won against Egypt. For the charges of Goran Bobić it was the first victory of the tournament, while Egypt still remains with an empty account.

CROATIA – EGYPT 31:24 (15:11)

Chroatia started the match very well, playing aggressively in defence what enabled them to counterattack their rivals. The Egyptians had problems with using shooting occassions, even such clear as penalty shots. In first few minutes they missed two of them, missing the goal at all. After ten minutes Croatian side was in a lead of 8:3, but then something bad happened to their concentration as their opponents scored three goals in a row, lowering their los still 8:6. Both teams played confusedly and were rather running from one goal to another. The first half finished with the score 15:11 in favour of Croatia.

In second half the charges of Goran Bobić didn’t let their opponents take the initiative and quite calmly won 31:24. However, it must be admitted that the tea, from North Africa played much better than yesterday against Chile. Still it wasn’t enough to gain two points against the Balkan equipe. Croatian players celebrated their victory for a long time especially that they shared it with domestic handball stars, Marko Mamić and Luka Cindrić. The players of PGE VIVE Kielce enjoyed the game and memorialized the success with a common picture.

Magda Pluszewska

photo credit: PRESSFOCUS/ZPRP

CROATIA: Marinović, Pokopac – Barisić, Malec 6, Ivanda 3, Popović 5, Guskić 1, Vucić, Rubić 2, Vidaković 2, Petika 4, Vojnović, Kaselj 4, Barbir, Miholić 4, Humel

EGYPT: Usama Abdelfatah Elshazly, Osama Ebeid Abdalla – Eslam Zaki Ahmed 3, Kassem Ibrahem Kassem, Ahmed Moussa Elshawarby 2, Refat Kamal Refaie, Tarek Morsy Khedr 3, Hany Mahmoud Mabrouk 1, Mohamed Rady Ahmed 3, Salah Elsayed Hassanein, Haitham Hammad Zaiki 1, Abdelrazek Ali Eid Ali 2, Emadaldien Mohamed Mahmoud, Mamdou Mohamed Mahmoud 7, Mohamed Gouda Wahdan, Khaled Fathy Ahmed 2

Goran Bobić, head coach of Croatia: It’s a very important victory, because our mental system is our biggest problem. We don’t believe in ourselves, because we don’t have a huge experience. We played at the European Championship last year, but we have changed nine players! Lot of players are new, they are born in 2001 and they still need to learn a lot. We are trying to do our best and gain confidence. It’s not easy! We are happy because of the victory, especially that Egypt played much better than yesterday! The girls must enjoy the game, like the official hashtag says, because this is all about it!

GALLERY