Thanks to their 28:24 victory against Poland in the decisive Main Round match in Malmö Croatia finish the group ranked third – and booked their ticket for the Olympics qualification tournament in April 2012. In the placement match 5/6 the Croats will meet Iceland, which can’t overtaken as group third in group I in Jönköping after Hungary lost against Spain. Iceland are also qualified for this tournament directly, no matter how they play against France later. Hungary and Poland play for the decisive seventh place on Friday – and only the winner is qualified for the Olympics qualification tournament. Spain remained unbeaten with their seventh victory in their eighth match. Depending on the result France –Iceland they finish first or second in their group.

Group I in Jönköping:

Spain – Hungary 30:24 (13:13)

Spain had been qualified for the semi-finals before and despite this fact they played with full power. Hungary needed to win to have chances for the 5/6 match after their victory over Germany the day before. In the starting period no team was dominant, the lead changed several times and both sides took the profit of their strong goalkeepers. As both opponents were on eye level the 13:13 was well-deserved. The key figure for the match was minute 43, when the Hungarians had two players less on the field due to suspensions. Spain extended the lead to 20:16, but the Magyars could come closer again. Thanks to their cleverness and experience Spain kept the lead until the end, even as Hungary could reduce the distance to 23:25 – but playing high risk in this period the Iberians punished all Hungarian mistakes without mercy. The final result 30:24 meant a too huge distance concerning the run-down of the match.

Group II in Malmö/Lund:

Croatia – Poland 28:24 (13:11)

Both teams started nervous and hectic due to the importance of this game concerning the qualification for the Olympics qualification tournaments. Surprisingly Polish coach Bogdan Wenta started with a very young team including shooter Mateusz Zaremba and left stars like Bielecki or Lijewski on the bench. And especially Zaremba showed some great shots in the beginning was responsible for the early 6:3 lead for Poland. But then Croatia found their rhythm in a tough match with a lot of suspensions. With his fourth goal Buntic equalized at 9:9 and the Croats extended the lead to 11:9 and 13:11 at the break. And as the Polish attack started even weaker than before the Croats went on to 17:12 in minute 35 though Polish goalkeeper Slawomir Szmal saved his teams from an even bigger distance. As the Croatian defense improved and the Polish didn’t have means to score the distance arose further on to 23:18, as left wing Manuel Strlek scored four times by counter attack in 14 minutes. And even as the Poles fought hard until the end, the gap was too big to close. Now they have to hope for a victory against Hungary in the placement match 7/8. Top scorer was Buntic with seven goals for Croatia, three players scored each four times for Poland.

Photos by Axel Heimken & Sascha Klahn