Tournament favorites France beat defending champions Croatia 25-23 in the men’s Olympic handball semi-final yesterday to set up a clash with either Iceland or Spain in the gold medal decider.
A gritty Croatian side desperate to become the first men’s team to defend the Olympic title gave its all in a bruising encounter but could not overcome France, the form team of the tournament in Beijing.
For France, making the final will help erase painful memories of Athens, when they were also red-hot favorites after a five-match winning streak but crashed out in the quarter-finals.
Both sides applied crunching defence and exchanged tit-for-tat goals, with three goals the maximum lead throughout an arm-wrestle of a match where the lead changed hands four times.
“It was a hard match,” French coach Claude Onesta said.
Croatia had the better of the early exchanges but France enjoyed its strongest spell at the end, pulling three goals clear two minutes from time to give their opponents little time to make up the deficit.
Croatian Zlako Horvat scored the first goal, but Olivier Girault hit back with a penalty for France that gave Croat goalkeeper Mirko Alilovic no chance.
The teams continued to probe each other’s defenses but neither could pull ahead and the scores were locked 4-4 after 10 minutes with French star Nikola Karabatic yet to register his first goal.
The 24-year-old soon put himself on the scoreboard but it was not enough to stop Croatia gaining the edge 9-6 as right wing Mirza Dzomba scored his 33rd goal of the tournament and pivot Igor Vori crashed through the French defence.
France took the lead for the first time at 11-10 in the 23rd minute, inspired by a Cedric Burdet steal in the Croatian area.
Girault had the chance to extend the lead when he broke through but hit the crossbar with only the goalie to beat, drawing groans from the French fans.
At half-time, the match remained evenly poised at 12-11 to France.
As the game entered its closing stages, French center back Bertrand Gille urged his team’s fans to lift their support.
The players responded, holding onto their lead as the Croats threw everything they had at them.
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
RSS