t took three minutes until Vori shot the first goal in the final. After this unhasty start the goals have been scored shortly one after another. Both teams played on a very high level. As both of the teams and the audience fluttered, because of the thrilling game, Lino Cervar took a team timeout for Croatia to calm them all down (Minute 24). The crowd went louder and louder again when Katabatic got a two-minute suspension (Minute 26) and Vori managed to score the seven-metre penalty for Croatia. Claude Onesta, the French coach also went furious because of this controversial decision of the German referees and received a yellow card.

Two minutes before the end of the first half the Croatians led by three goals but Karabatic scored two goals in a minute and the French number 8, Narcisse equalized with another beautiful goal. When the thrilled audience heard the sound of the half time whistle the score on board 12:12.

Due to Fernandez, Karabatic and Narcisse, “les Bleues” led by two after five minutes in the second half (13:15). Some seconds later Luc Abalo (two amazing goals from the right wing) even made it a plus four lead. Croatia managed to catch up a little bit but the French goalkeeper Thierry Omeyer made it very hard for them to do so. On the other side the Croatian goalkeeper Alilovic saved some spectacular shots too.

The game was getting rough and demanding. The Croatian number 17, Vedran Mataija even was disqualified for attacking Karabatic very rudely. The two-minute penalty helped France to lead plus four again (19:23, 20:24) -they even led plus five due to Gille two minutes before the end of the game, but Zrnic (top scorer of this game with seven goals) scored again and in the end the Olympic and World Champion won 21:25

Lino Cervar (coach of Croatia) “First of all I would like to congratulate the players. The silver medal is a big success. We can be proud because we managed to come to an end with all the injuries, that happened. We controlled the first half of this match but the 11:8 was the crucial point when we dropped all our success.”

Igor Vori (player Croatia, number 9) “The worst thing that happened was France scoring easy goals and then we have not been able to follow the match. We should celebrate the silver medal, as it was gold. The Croatian team has a lot of youngsters and injuries –so I would like to congratulate all of my team mates and I hope that we will show what we can in Sweden.”

Vedran Zrnic (player Croatia, number 7) “In the locker room we raised our heads –because this is success. Regarding the problems in our country I am glad, that we could keep the Croatians happy. I want to thank all the Croatian fans that saved their last money to come to Austria.”

Claude Onesta (coach of France) “We are very happy about this victory and the new title. It was a very difficult tournament at a high level. This last match showed that our team has a lot of physical potential. I want to congratulate Croatia for their great fight.”

Sebastien Bosquet (player France, number 23) “We knew that the Croatians had a lot of suppliers and fans here so we have been very happy, that there have been  some French suppliers.”

 Cedric Sorhaindo (player France, number 20) “We are very happy about the victory but we have to see what happens next. The tournament started very difficult for us and regarding that fact we are very very glad to win this tournament.”