Friday, 29. January 2010
Semi final 2: Croatia makes it to the EURO-2010-final
credit: Silvio Ferrari
Those who thought the Croatian fans would dominate the stands were wrong. As the Polish fans went louder and louder, the Croatians couldn’t be heard anymore. Poland led by plus one when Jurasik scored his first goal in the game while there was a men less. Another goal that is worth mentioning was scored by number 15, Jurecki after a spectacular assist (7:9) Poland was leading by one goal when the players heard the sound of the half time whistle so the first half ended up 9:10.
Poland started with one man less in the second half and the Croatians used this chance to equalize (10:10). They even managed to lead plus one two minutes later. Suddenly the Croatian fans appeared again, they cheered, shouted and sang again and so Duvnjak, managed to score a plus two lead. Several minutes later, Ivan Cupic scored a penalty, which made it a plus three lead. (15:12)
In the very beginning of the second half, Duvnjak scored three times in a row and turned the score from a Polish lead into a Croatian lead by two. Then most of the time Croatia tried to run down the clock and managed to keep the ball in their own hands. Poland tried to fight back but made a few unforced errors and because of that they kept at least a two-goal lead till the very end. And so Croatia also led by two when Vukovic shot the last goal in the second semi final 24:21.
Bogdan Wenta (coach of Poland) “First of all I want to congratulate Croatia. I am a little bit disappointed concerning this match because we had too many bad situations. We have to take the chances against Iceland and find new power.”
Tomasz Tluczynski (player, Poland, number 19) “I am very disappointed and I am walking out of the court with a very bad feeling. Croatia is a top team but this is bitter for us. Nevertheless we have to look ahead.”
Bartlomiej Jaszka (player Poland, number 2) “All in all I am confident with the tournament. It is good to be in the semi-finals but it would have been even better to be in the final. I also would like to congratulate Croatia –they have been very well prepared for this tournament.”
Lino Cervar (coach of Croatia) “I want to congratulate Poland for an extraordinary and fair game. We came to the EURO with the youngest team and two crucial injured players and we did it. For the Polish team I want to say, that I want them to win the bronze medal.”
Drago Vukovic (player Croatia number 14) “I don’t really know what made the difference today. The only thing that I can think of is that we changed our defence from 6:0 to 5:1 and this might be the reason why we’ve won.”
Domagoj Duvnjak (player Croatia number 5) “I want to congratulate my team-mates for an extraordinary fight from the first till the last minute of the game. I also want to thank our supporters. Now we have to rest a bit, but we are sleeping with a medal and nobody can take it.”
