One of three host nations, Norway, has already played out in the World Championship. For Denmark, a quarterfinal against Brazil awaits on Tuesday, but Croatia can already prepare to compete for the medals.
But it required a crazy comeback in the quarterfinal against Hungary before the semifinal spot was secured.
The Hungarian handball players have only taken a World Championship medal once, a silver in 1986, and have not reached the semifinal since 1997. Now it was so close, so close, and when Máté Lékai scored a penalty to lead 30–26 with just over five minutes left, the Hungarians could almost take the advance.
Full stands
Then Croatia came to life at home in their capital, in a boiling Zagreb Arena. Goalkeeper Ivan Pesic transformed into a wall and saved everything, while the Croatian goals poured in one after another.
Filip Glavas equalized to 30–30 on a penalty with one minute left to play, but the Hungarians got the chance to decide in a final attack. They failed, Croatia managed a counterattack, and Zvonimir Srna found a free Marin Sipic on the line.
In the match's absolute last second, the 28-year-old scored the match-winning goal.
Three tenths left
In Thursday's semifinal, which is also played in Zagreb, France awaits.
The French also advanced after an incredible thriller. Egypt stood up sensationally well against the reigning European Champion and seemed to take the match to overtime when Yahia Omar scored 33–33 with three seconds left of regular time.
But France started the game lightning-fast and Luka Karabatic utilized Egypt's goalkeeper being out when he threw in 34–33 from the middle circle.
However, a video review was required to see if the goal would be approved.
It showed that there were three tenths of a second left of the match when the ball crossed the goal line.
Corrected: An earlier version had incorrect information about the last goals in France–Egypt. Correct is that France won 34–33.
