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February 1, 2025Croatia provided nearly all of the 15,600 handball fans in the sold-out Arena Zagreb with a perfect departing present as they defeated 2023 IHF Men’s World Championship silver medallists France by three goals in their 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship semi-final.
The co-hosts will now move to Oslo, Norway for the final to play for gold for the first time since 2009.
An emotional night in Zagreb saw Croatian legends Igor Karacic and captain Domagoj Duvnjak play the last game for their country at home, having started their national team journey together two decades ago.
SEMI-FINAL
France vs Croatia 28:31 (11:18)
Back in 2009, France beat Croatia in the final of the IHF Men’s World Championship in Arena Zagreb, with now-France coach Guillaume Gille playing in a 24:19 final win.
Also playing in that game was Croatia captain Domagoj Duvnjak and while his time is now limited on court – he played less than five minutes this evening – he is a source of adrenaline and power from the bench.
Duvnjak, like Karacic will never play in their nations’ shirts at home again, and maybe that was what the side needed going up against a France side who had won their previous seven games straight.
But Gille’s side could not get started in their usual gear, with nervy handling against a strong Croatian defence, as usual, backed by almost all of the crowd supporting them, with the exception of some pockets of French supporters.
Playing their usual 5-1 defence with Marko Mamic the outlier, Sigurdsson’s side were putting everything into their opening salvos, Duvnjak leading the crowd from the bench in the support of their time – before five minutes had even elapsed, Mateo Maras needed the ball wiped for the amount of sweat which was on it.
Both sides then started making mistakes but around the 10-minute mark, a Croatia 3:0 scoring run opened up a 7:4 lead and France never came back. At 9:5 a few minutes later, Gille had seen enough and took the first of his two first-half time outs – much to the anticipation of Duvnjak, who was in a frenzy, grabbing Maras at the pause and chest-bumping him like a man possessed.
Gille then introduced his rotation, Luka Karabatic joining the fray – his recently-retired brother Luka who played in that 2009 clash watching from the stands in his TV role.
But despite their best efforts, France could not close the gap, despite a delightful Benoit Kounkoud in-flight bringing his side to within five (12:7) just before the 20-minute mark.
Soon after, Croatia went ahead by eight (15:7), prompting Duvnjak to calmly walk over to Marin Sipic and Ivan Martinovic, sitting on the bench having returned from court, and proceed to say nothing, instead kissing them both on their heads.
‘Dule’ then entered the court soon after and it was pure emotional chaos as Filip Glavas jumped on his chair, standing tall and letting all his emotions out (16:8).
This prompted a second time out from Gille (25th minute) and in a sign of their nervousness, the side nearly restarted with eight on court, goalkeeper Charles Bolzinger rushing off just in time as Gille opted for the 7v6.
It backfired immediately though as France missed their chance to score and Zvonimir Srna gleefully grabbed the ball to shoot into the open net (17:8)
At 18:9 ahead, Croatia attacked to make their lead double-figures and their fans were pinching themselves, but, under pressure, Ivan Martinovic could not score. Duvnjak left the court at the break imploring the crowd to keep showing their support and hoping that, like Karacic, he would not leave Croatia with a loss.
Kuzmanovic would end the first 30 with five saves, but if evidence was needed of just how the second half went, he would end the game on 15.
Such was the reliance on the young goalkeeper, that second goalkeeper Ivan Pesic, who was in the 2009 squad but did not play, did not even have his jersey on under his training top when Kuzmanovic suffered a blow after the 15-minute mark. This then caused a number of Croatian backroom staff to hurry around to get the shirt eventually on the back of the 36-year-old.
When Kuzmanovic made another save in the 37th minute, the arena echoed to the chants of ‘Kuzma, Kuzma’ and with 15 minutes remaining, Croatia had a healthy six-goal lead (22:16), France having slowly come back.
A brief look at the French sports media outlet, ‘L’Equipe’ at this point said “There is still hope”, while in a sign of the disbelief at their performance so far and to not hope too much, Croatian sports website Gol.hr said “The desperate comeback of the French has begun”.
In the end, France could not make it any closer than three goals difference as Kuzmanovic shut up shop, his save from a Nedim Remili seven-metre (44th minute) creating the biggest noise of the night as the Croatian fans started to believe.
At 25:20, Duvnjak and Karacic had played for a combined time of 4:57 and with the game needing their experience and steady heads, Sigurdsson put them into battle for one last time on home soil – and they ended with 10 more minutes between them in the bank.
As the clock ticked down with less than two minutes left, it was confirmed, Croatia had a 31:27 lead, and despite a last strike from France’s Mathieu Grebille, Marin Jelinic was already on his knees, head down, knowing he had secured a medal.
Karacic and Duvnjak now have their last dance together, and the love for them and sportsmanship from France was evident in the end-of-game team line-ups, with the French players hugging them.
The last two editions of the IHF Men’s World Championship has seen Croatia finish in 15th (2021) and 9th (2023) and under new coach Dagur Sigurdsson, they now have a guaranteed podium place.
Bring on Oslo.
hummel Player of the Match: Zvonimir Srna (Croatia)