Croatia beat Saudi Arabia 28-23 in the opening match, Hungary is the next opponent.
Croatian handball team often has slow starts to the big tournaments and the opening game Vs. Saudi Arabia played January, 13. 2017 was not the exception. In the first half, Croatian players were making many errors in the defense, and the attack was much slower than usual, so the margin at the half-time was just one goal.
The quality of Croatian team prevailed in the second half, and it took just some more defensive effort to get the comfortable margin which was maintained all the way to the final whistle.
Cindrić was the best scorer for Croatia, with six goals, Duvnjak followed with five, while Štrlek and Mihić added four each.
Željko Babić was satisfied after the game, pointing out that three points are the most important thing to take from this opening match, and it should be considered as a warm-up before the real thing which is to come tomorrow.
Croatia will play Hungary tomorrow, who lost to Germany today.
