September 8, 2022 - The semifinal game against Italy was a close one, but 11:10 victory made Croatia the finalists of the competition taking place in Split!

This is the fourth time Croatia will play in the European championship finals, and their opponensts on Saturday will be Hungary, who beat Spain in the other semi-final match.

Jerko Marinić Kragić scored for Croatia four times, Andrija Bašić added two goals, Konstantin Harkov scored twice, and Marko Žuvela and Rino Burić once each. Francesco Di Fulvio scored for Italy three times.

10000 observers in the Spaladium Arena helped lift the players, and they needed the help as the game was extremely close and it could've gone either way. Two minutes before the end of the game the score was 10:10. Then the Italians made an unusual mistake, allowing Croatia to score for 11:10, and the Croatian goalkeeper Marko Bijač made a crucial save, securing the victory.

August 29, 2022 (HKS).

The Croatian national basketball team achieved its second victory as part of the pre-qualifications for the EuroBasket 2025. In Opatija, Damir Mulaomerović 's team defeated Switzerland with a score of 84-53 (50-26) .

Croatia has shown authority and seriousness from the beginning. A 6-0 start grew to 22-10 by the end of the first quarter. Bojan Bogdanović (7), Dario Šarić (5) and Karlo Matković (4) got off to a particularly inspired start .

In the second quarter, Croatia increased the speed, and the advantage constantly grew. After a great assist by Dominik Mavra for Matković, Croatia led 27-13. Bogdanović's three-pointer for 32-17 followed, and the first escape to a 20-point advantage via Matković (37-17), and by half-time the advantage grew to +24 (50-26).

By then, Matković had already shown a great performance with 17 points and 8 rebounds. Bogdanović scored 10 points, and Dario Šarić scored 9 with 6 rebounds and two assists. Krunoslav Simon, although without a point, collected four assists and two steals by halftime.

The second half was an ideal opportunity for coach Mulaomerović to deploy his forces before going to EuroBasket, which starts on September 1, and give an opportunity to players who participated less in the previous part of the preparations and pre-qualifications for Eurobasket 2025. This did not affect the result. Matković was replaced under the basket by Ivica Zubac and with his dunk, Croatia went ahead for the first time by more than 30 points (59-28). The Croatian side entered the final quarter with +29 (70-41) and the game ended peacefully.

Karlo Matković finished the match with 17 points, 12 rebounds and 5 blocks, Dario Šarić scored 13 (7 rebounds), Ivica Zubac (7 rebounds) and Bojan Bogdanović 12 each, Toni Perković and Jaleen Smith 7 each, and Roko Prkačin 6 points.

The first game at EuroBasket in Milan will be played on Friday, September 2nd, 2022 at 17:00 against Greece.

Result by Quarters: 22-10, 28-16, 20-15, 14-12

Find the Boxscore here

May 11, 2021 – The Borna Sosa story has stirred quite a bit of commotion with his announcement of switching national teams from Croatia to Germany. The story got a new twist that might complicate things even more.

Even though the football season is almost over the news of the day in Croatia is one about Borna Sosa. This talented 23 years old left-back player is exactly what the national team needs now. His outstanding performances both in his club and Croatia U21 national team made him a young player to watch. But it wasn’t just Croatian officials that were watching him.

German Football Federation was quick to approach the player. They managed to sway him to come to play for the German national team. Borna’s mother was born in Germany and he now has the legal right to claim German citizenship. The decision was a shocking one for the Croatian football public and especially painful given the specific talents and the position Borna Sosa excels at. We have already reported on the details of this story as well as on the interview in which he explained his decision. The case seemed pretty much closed. However, the latest news out of Germany puts another shocking spin on the entire story.

The Final Twist?

In order to have Sosa playing for the German national football team after already playing for the Croatia U21 team, he needs permission from FIFA, football’s global governing body. As index.hr reports, there is a new clause added in FIFA rulebook since September 2020 that states a player switching national teams needed to already have had citizenship of the nation he is switching to before he played for the national team he is switching from. In other words, Borna Sosa needed to already have had dual Croatian and German citizenship at the time when he played for the Croatia youth team. Borna Sosa applied for German citizenship this year, so this is not the case. Because of this, FIFA will most probably decline the German request.

This is quite a shock, not just because of the fact Sosa might not be allowed to play for Germany. It is very unusual for a serious football association to make a mistake like that, not checking basic rules and regulations. If FIFA decides to disallow this change in national teams, this will be quite an embarrassing episode for German officials. Going public with announcements of Sosa’s possible place in the national team might backfire spectacularly.

At the end of the story, Croatia might end up with the left-back player the fans were dreaming of. The question is, will there be bad feelings after the Germany saga.

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Croatian athlete won her fourth European gold in a row.