On the penultimate matchday of the Main Round in the EHF EURO 2022, Croatia surprisingly beat Iceland, which lost its lead on France. Denmark beat the Netherlands decisively, so they will play for a medal in the Budapest handball arena. But don’t forget, the Danish-French derby is still to come on Wednesday!
Croatia cools down the Icelandic geyser
Iceland beat Olympic Champion France on Saturday in memorable fashion, so everybody took their win against Croatia for granted.
But Croatia thought differently, even when the Nordic side was up 9-4. The Icelandic fans were louder at this time and they were happy with their 12-10 lead at halftime.
If someone stayed at the buffet, the concession stands or the Telekom Chill Zone for a bit longer (which we can totally understand) and missed the first five minutes of the second half, well, they missed the Croatian comeback. In fact, after 15 minutes, there was 19-14 on the scoreboard in favor of Hrovje Horvat’s squad. This big turnaround refreshed the stands, the neutral fans quickly chose a team to root for, if they didn’t already.
Iceland took the lead again at 22-21, but the Croatian team led by Lucin, who scored 6 goals, and Ivan Pesic, who made a lot of big saves, delivered the win and took all two points as they scored six seconds before the final whistle.