December 6, 2021 - The Croatia women's handball team lost to Japan in the last game of Group G at the World Championship in Spain. Japan topped Croatia 28:26.

Croatia entered this match without three important players, Ćamila Mičijević, Ivana Dežić, and Dora Krsnik, who are out of the squad after testing positive for Covid-19. Coach Nenad Šoštarić had 10 players and three goalkeepers at his disposal for the match against Japan.

Croatia fought a great battle against a persistent, tough, and quick Japan, led about 50 minutes of the match, but were left without strength in the end. Croatia did not score a goal in the last seven minutes, and after leading 23:20 in the 46th minute, they fell behind 24:26. Mistakes plagued the end of the match and defeat was inevitable.

Larissa Kalaus scored six goals for Croatia and Ana Turk five, while Nakayama led Japan with nine goals.

Croatia played against Japan only once before at the 2005 World Championship in Russia.

The match against Japan was important because the winner transfers two points to the second round. Three national teams advance from each group. After that, four new groups of six teams will be formed, and the national teams will transfer the points won against other teams from the group to the second round.

Thus, Japan will transfer two points to the second round of the competition, while Croatia will not transfer any, because they only won against Paraguay, which ended its journey in the championship.

In the second match of the group, Brazil defeated Paraguay 33-19. Thus, in the second round, Brazil transferred four points, Japan two, and Croatia no points.

In the second round in Alicante, Croatia will play Spain (4), Argentina (2), and Austria (0).

Recap

CROATIA: Bešen (0+1), Kapitanović, Pijević (6); P. Posavec 3, S. Posavec 3, Kalaus 6(3), Ježić 4, Burić, Šimara, Debelić 4, Turk 5, Mamić, Blažević 1. Coach: Nenad Šoštarić.

JAPAN: Kametani (8+1), Baba; Nagata 1, Fujita, Gray, Ohyama 1(1), Aizawa 3, Matsumoto, Iwabuchi, Kondo 2, Nakayama 9(4), Yamamoto, Kitihara 4, Sahara 2, Hattori 6(1), Yoshidome. Coach: Shigeo Kusomoto.

7-meter throws: Croatia 4(3), Japan 9(6).

Exclusions: Hrvatska 8 minutes, Japan 12 minutes

Player of the match: Kaho Nakayama.

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

December 4, 2021 - Croatia women's handball crush Paraguay in the second round of the 2021 World Championship in Spain, securing their first victory of the competition and a chance at moving to the second round. 

The Croatia women's handball team recorded a convincing victory in the 2nd round of the 2021 World Championship in Spain.

After losing to Brazil at the opening of the World Championship, Nenad Šoštarić's team beat Paraguay 38:16 (15:5) in the second round of Group G.

With an easy victory against Paraguay, Croatia practically secured the second round, in which three national teams from each group will be placed. The win is also important to improve the team's morale after the initial defeat against Brazil. 

Despite the great victory, one of the greatest ever for Croatian women's handball, the match didn't start so well. Paraguay led 3:2 in the fifth minute. However, Croatia came back with a 10:0 series and kept their advantage until the end of the match. 

Ana Turk and Valentina Blažević scored the most in Croatia, six goals each.

Japan beat Paraguay beat in the first match 40:17. The World Championship in Spain is Paraguay's fourth in history. So far, they have been to France in 2007, Serbia in 2013, and Germany in 2017. They were 23rd in the first, 21st in the last two. In 21 matches so far, they have achieved four victories (2007: Australia 16:14, 2013: Algeria 29:19, 2017: Argentina 28:25, China 23: 21), one draw (2013: Australia 18:18), and suffered 16 defeats. The hardest was against Norway at the 2007 World Cup in France of 50:12, or minus 38 goals.

CROATIA - PARAGUAY 38:16 (15: 5)

CROATIA: Bešen, Kapitanović, Pijević; P. Posavec 1, Krsnik, S. Posavec 4, Mičijević 1, L. Kalaus, Ježić 4, Burić, Šimara 2, Dežić 5, Debelić 5, Turk 6, Mamić 4, Blažević 6.

PARAGUAY: Acosta, Fleitas, Gimenez, Acuna 5, Dos Santos, Faria 1, Fiore 1, Fernandez 3, Gonzalez 1, Leiva 1, Insfran 3, Miskinich, Rolon 2.

EXCLUSIONS: Croatia 10 minutes, Paraguay 14 minutes
PENALTIES: Croatia 6/6, Paraguay 3/7

In the last match of the group, the "Queens of Shock" will face Japan on December 6. 

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

Source: HRT

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page.