EHF Euro 2018 - Croatia

[mikh]

Amazing! Sweden sends Iceland home and pulls Serbia in. The Serbs have to buy the Swedes a beer
Sweden looked amazing and everything was going their way. Croatia, quite the opposite. Now they will face France and Norway, starting with only 2p. That's going to be really interesting. This MR group will be a killer.

[Ivar]

I'd rather have us lose all three games than to go out in such an embarrassing way.

Those last 15 minutes against Serbia were a complete self-destruction. Two Euros in a row this exact thing happens, but at least this Euro doesn't have any Olympic qualifier seats...

[matt_]

Amazing! Sweden sends Iceland home and pulls Serbia in. The Serbs have to buy the Swedes a beer

Yeah, I've heard about proposal of giving us Serbian beer after our victory over Germany in 2012, let you advance to semifinals. Is it some kind of Scandinavian tradition?

[Bo$ko]

Serbia well deserved in MR. Iceland shined only in first match, but if the match was a bit longer I am sure they would lose it too.
Anyway great performance by their new players, but someone had to leave.

Sweden was dominating in Split and now with 4p they need to beat Norway to get in semifinals.
Really enjoyable handball from their team.
Croatia without Duvnjak is lost in space, Cindrić-Karačić duo can't make miracles alone.
Červar is the guilty one why Duvnjak wasn't rested when Croatia crushed Serbia.
He probably wanted a big difference against hot opponent, and got what deserved.

[Rammy]

As Ivar said, Iceland did self-destruct. Karason cannot have had a worse game in his life, and Palmarsson chose (as he always does) the wrong moment to try something fancy. Serbia have some good shooters, but Iceland are a better team and shouldn't have lost this one. With better leaders they wouldn't have.

Sweden on the other hand were brilliant. Palmarsson may be a bigger name, but Gottfridsson is a far better playmaker. Not least because he has better brains. Jeppson adds shooting of a kind that has been missing before, and goalkeepers and winger we always have. Sweden v Norway will be a thriller!

Not sure if Croatia can pick themselves up from this. They are missing Duvnjak of course and I haven't been impressed with Cervar lately. He is never afraid to try something different to change a game. But he rarely succeeds!

Looks like Sweden v Norway for a quarter-final of sorts, but I haven't ruled out Croatia yet. Serbia will not trouble anyone.

[Synchrony]

Cervar's time passed a long time ago.

[mikh]

Cervar's time passed a long time ago.

Agree, naming him didn't make much sense.

A few days ago I was rewatching their final against France, from the WCh they hosted in 2009. His tactics were unbelievably wrong in that match and he walked straight into the French trap. And instead of coming up with solutions, he was just pulling his hair at every ref decision which he (wrongly) thought is against him.

He was a great coach, but I find it hard to believe that such a great handball country like Croatia doesn't have other options for the bench.

[mikh]

Looks like Sweden v Norway for a quarter-final of sorts, but I haven't ruled out Croatia yet. Serbia will not trouble anyone.

My intuition is that Croatia will win against France and will balance the MR group. I also see France winning against Sweden. I have no idea what Norway's 2 matches against Sweden and Croatia could end like. But then again, these are only my suppositions.

[mikh]

In the mean time, we should expect a crazy evening of handball today.
Wonder if Czech R. will end up regreting that casually missed penalty at the end of their match against Denmark, as that means Hungary now needs a +4 victory (instead of +3, had that penalty been converted) to be certain of going through.
Denmark on the other side is sure of qualifying, but a victory vs. Spain can make the task easier for Hungary and allow themselves to go through with 4p in the MR. It's more or less the same situation that we had in Group A matches last night.

[fmj]

Belarus robbed, sick! Corruption! Cervar should be ashamed of himself.

[Mr. 007]

Belarus robbed, sick! Corruption! Cervar should be ashamed of himself.

Agree...

And CRO trainer grabbed a Belarus player in their final attack to get a draw....guess he will get a ban or something...very unsportsmanslike.

[mikh]

Belarus robbed, sick! Corruption! Cervar should be ashamed of himself.

I saw only the last 3 mins, after Belarus equalised. Could you elaborate a bit, since I don't have time to watch the whole match these days.

[Rammy]

With FRA virtually through they may well be in a position to send CRO out. But will they?
Judging from past experiences they will not. France never plays hard unless they have too. And I don't think they are sufficiently worried about Croatia to refrain from resting their players in the last game. In the past that has always been their first option. I see Croatia winning by the two goal margin they need to send both teams through. As a result Sweden will be left on the touchline, contemplating their woeful finishing against France. Even if they do their bit (min 3 points) against Norway and Belarus, by no means certain of course.

The other Group could be less ugly with two virtual quarter-finals, unless Macedonia underachieves again. Can't see them touching Denmark even with Lazarov. But Spain v Germany could be interesting.

[mikh]

Check out the list of candidatures for the Euros 2022 and 2024.
http://eurohandball.com/article/30222
Very cool presentations also. A decision will be taken on June 18, 2018.

For the Women's Euro 2022, there is a single joint bid from Slovenia-Macedonia-Montenegro.