The new sports hall of Zadar, Visnjik, was inaugurated with a Croatian success in great atmosphere. The hosts qualified for the Olympic Games together with Russia and the hall was full for every single match of the Croatian team. The fans even watched trainings, which is not just business as usual…
7,500 Croatian handball fans created an impressive atmosphere and this helped their team reach the Olympics for the third time in their history.
On the first day of the qualification tournament, Croatia defeated Japan by 37:22 (19:11).
Vori was the top scorer with 7 goals and Miyazaki also scored 7 for Japan.
Cervar vs. Maximov
The second match was a really great handball show with a duel between two superb teams Croatia and Russia and also between two legendary coaches, Lino Cervar and Vladimir Maximov.
It was an exciting encounter. The Croats had the lead during entire match, but the Russians were close all the time. Once again, Croats won 26:24 (15:12).
Vori and Dzomba scored 5 goals each, similarly to Dibirov on the other side.
The third match against Algeria was not an easy job either as this game had no importance any more with Croatia already holding the tickets to Beijing.
However, the team of Lino Cervar did not cause disappointment for the 7,500 fans in Visnjik hall and defeated Algeria by 37:26 (14:13).
Duvnjak and Vukovic scored 7 goals each. In Algeria team Chehbour scored 6.
Great opening of Visnjik hall
One of the best Croatian players of the tournament, Igor Vori, was amazed by the great atmosphere of Visnjik hall:
“We all couldn’t wait for the qualification to start because we wanted to play in front of our own crowd. But I never expected this. Zadar and their fans surprised me. So much affection, so much support: this is incredible! I can only thank all our fans for this incredible experience.”
Coach Lino Cervar was also moved by the warm welcome in Zadar:
“I don’t have words to express my gratitude. Our fans were key players in all three victories.”
At the end, Croatia took the first place of the Zadar Olympic qualification tournament. The Croatian city on the Adriatic coast is famous for basketball. After this great handball event, their “basketball reputation” threatened.
It was a great opening for the new Visnjik hall in Zadar, which was built for the 2009 World Championship. With this kind of support from fans, Croatia seem unable to lose in Visnjik.
