Greece fought hard against the combative Croats but suffered its first defeat in Group A with a score of 14-13 and will face Italy with the goal of achieving the best possible placement.
Greece battled until the last minute against the Croats, but some defensive errors cost them, resulting in their first loss in their group at 14-13. In the next match, they will face Italy with the aim of securing the best possible placement.
The first quarter was quite balanced, with Greece opening the scoring and then Croatia taking the lead at 3-1. With two consecutive goals, our National Team equalized at the end of the first quarter, continuing this streak into the second period.
Thus, extending the streak to four goals, Thodoris Vlachos’s team turned the game around, taking advantage of the penalties earned and gaining a lead of 3-5.
Greece maintained a +2 lead until the end of the second quarter, which ended at 4-6. The third quarter was a battle between the two teams, with the Croats being relentless and the National Team paying for their defensive mistakes.
The Croats equalized at 6-6 with two goals from Kragjic, and then Fondoulis sought revenge for the penalty he had missed a little earlier, making it 6-7.
Ivica Tucak’s players increased the pressure and managed, for the first time in a while, to take the lead with a goal from Vukicevic for 9-8.
Greece equalized with a beautiful and difficult goal from Nikolaidis, but with two consecutive goals from Bukic and Kragjic, the Croats took a 11-9 lead.
The fourth quarter started in the most ideal way for Greece. Croatia was left with five players for four minutes after Biljak was sent off for punching Argyrpoulos, who successfully scored from 5 meters, bringing the score to 11-10.
The “blue and white” brought the match back to even with Kalogeropoulos, making it 12-12 midway through the final period, but the Croats took the lead with two goals from Harkov, bringing the score to 14-12, with Vlachos reducing it to 14-13 in the last minute.
THE QUARTERS: 3-3, 4-6, 11-9, 14-13
GREECE (Thodoris Vlachos): Zerdevas, Genidounias 1, Skoumbakis 1, Kalogeropoulos 2, Foudoulis 2, Papadimitriou 2, Gillas, Argyrpoulos 2, Papankolaou, Kakaras, Nikolaidis 1, Vlachos 2.
CROATIA (Ivica Tucak): Buric, Fatovic 3, Lontsar 1, Jokovits 1, Bukic 1, Vukicevic 1, Zuvele, Kragjic 3, Vrljic, Biljak, Harkov 4, Popandic.
SPORT24 at the 2024 Olympic Games
All news and updates about the Olympic Games in Paris are here! Check the detailed Olympic Games schedule and watch live the progress of the sports and the medal rankings at Olympic Games
Matchcenter.
Subscribe to SPORT24’s push notifications, as well as to our YouTube channel to stay updated on all the developments for the 2024 Olympic Games.