Beijing 2008 - Spain snatch bronze from Croatia

Eurosport - Sun, 24 Aug 11:57:00 2008

Spain won Olympic handball bronze with a hard-fought 35-29 victory over Croatia.

HANDBALL 2008 Beijing Olympic Spain's Alberto Entrerrios, left, celebrates scoring against Croatia in the handball bronze medal match - 0

Both teams played a gritty game, slicing in goals and wheedling through gaps in the defence in a tussle that had no time for aesthetics.

Croatia, who won Olympic gold in 2004, led 14-12 after the first half, but the tenacious Spanish players soon overtook them.

Pained groans mingled with chants from the crowd as Spain's Carlos Prieto and Iker Romero crashed into Croatia's Ivano Balic and tumbled to the ground. Other violent clashes saw players stumble over each other and catapult into a joint forward roll.

Croatian left back Blazenko Lackovic added some class with a beautiful jump shot towards the end of the second half, but by then Spain had pulled ahead and did not look back. Iceland will face France later on Sunday in the final handball battle for gold.

Reuters

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  1. dont know what else to say..croatia couldnt make it better..we have a problem, and we hope we'll solve it for our homely championship to improve ..and to finally get this gold :p

    From Ivana, on Tue 26 Aug 8:56PM

  2. High time Spain showed their hot bloody class!!!
    Shame Spain played badly against Iceland, but glad we got one back from arch-enemies Croatia. Go go Spain.

    From AndJustice4All, on Sun 24 Aug 6:42PM

  3. Too bad... :( But, they was better...

    From proud_croat_girl, on Sun 24 Aug 1:08PM
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