April 19, 2022 - Croatia women's handball coach Nenad Šoštarić gathered the team in Zagreb on Monday before their final two and absolutely must-win Euro qualifiers.
There were 21 players on the primary player list, which was published ten days ago, including five goalkeepers. Three of them, or the first three goalkeepers, suffered injuries. Monday's gathering showed that Tea Pijević is dropping out. Ivana Kapitanović is also suffering from pain. Lucija Bešen received the green light from her doctor to play on Saturday, but she hasn't trained for ten days and is also in question, reports HRS.
That is how Antonija Tucaković found her place in the national team, who has been defending the goal for Podravka Vegeta for the last few months. After a long time, Gabrijela Bartulović (formerly Bešen), the older sister of Lucija Bešen, who has been playing for the Hungarian team NKKA Dujnavarosi since this season, is again on the national team.
Unfortunately, this is not the end of the bad news. Captain Katarina Ježić will also miss these two games due to injury. Although she arrived in Zagreb, there is also a doubt that Ćamila Mičijević will play, and she had already missed two matches against France. When adding that there is no Larissa Kalaus, it is clear that coach Nenad Šoštarić has some big problems and shoes to fill.
The national team gathered in Zagreb at the Westin Hotel, where it will stay until Tuesday before traveling to Graz. After that, Croatia will play Ukraine at the Raiffeisen Sportpak Hall on Wednesday, April 20 at 18:00. This is the 5th round of qualifications for EURO 2022, which was supposed to be played in Zaporizhia, but it was transferred to Austria due to the war in Ukraine. After that, the national team will go directly to Poreč, where they will play against the Czech Republic on April 24, also at 18:00 in the last match of the 4th qualification group.
Croatia lost to Ukraine in the 1st round of qualifications in Rijeka (22:23). After that, Croatia beat the Czech Republic away and was defeated twice by France. At the moment, Croatia has two points. Since Ukraine has the same number of points but two games less, the calculation is obvious. Croatia must win both remaining games to be among the two best teams in their group and advance to the European Championships, where they could defend the bronze medal won at Euro 2020.
The European Championships will be held in Slovenia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia at the end of the year.
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