“Miracle in Cologne” happened again! Slovenia beat Croatia 31:30 for the world’s bronze medal in Paris after eight goals minus 15 minutes before the end.
Opposite of the expectations based on tough match last night, Croatia were flying at the start of bronze medal match on a good defense and numerous conter-attacks which gae them 7:4 lead after only 11 minutes. Slovenian bench called time-out which gave some short-term effect on the result with the pick on Henigman goal for 8:9 lead for Croatia at 17th minute, but the World Champions from 2003 were on the higher level with their second back line (Cindric,Mamic and Sebetic). Their goals put them four goals up (13:9) which stayed the diffrence between two rivals until Luka Cindric didn’t score twice for +6 – 18:12.
Led by the TOP quality of captain Domagoj Duvnjak, Croatia made +8 until 40th minute – 24:16, when it looked that Slovenia have nothing more to offer in the battle for their first world’s medal. However, succesful play with line-player Blaz Blagotinsek put Slovenia on -4 – 10 minutes before the final buzzer, which forced Zeljko Babic to call time-out for his team (27:23).
That didn’t prevent his team of losing rhythm, while Slovenians with the tactics “we have nothing to lose” began to run and came on goal minus – 29:28 – four minutes before the end, and made the historic turnover by winning goal of Borut Mackovsek for 31:30.
