Croatia in the quarter-finals against Spain

Defeating by the USA team in the 5th round of Group A of the Olympic tournament in Paris, the Barracudas took fourth place in the group, thus gaining Spain as an opponent in the quarterfinals, which is scheduled for Wednesday, August 7.
Team USA defeated Croatia in the 5th round of Group A 14:11.
The opening match did not 'smell' well. The opponent scored from all situations, from the outside line, once from the counter, and then from the box. Our defense was not up to the task. Coach Tucak tried rotations, including the goalkeeper, and so Bijač replaced Popadić, who started, already after the first quarter. After the first quarter it was 5:2 for the opponent, and after the second 10:5 even. At the very end of the second quarter, the Americans led by as much as 10:3, only to be reduced to 10:5 by goals from Harkov and Fatović. Still a very big difference. A difference that was difficult to make up for, to "catch" in the second part. That part of the game was played somewhat better, but minus 5 was no longer possible to reach or cancel.

STATEMENTS

Menu of Ivica Tucak:

- I don't remember when we conceded so many goals in the first two quarters, 10 even. Nothing was right today. We had no defense, no attack, no shooters, no goalkeeper. It is difficult to find the right word to describe our current disintegration in the match against the Americans. The breakdown that happened in our game, in our heads. I don't know what the reason is. We probably weren't in the game with our heads. It is probably the calculation before the game, what and how and on whom, and not that we are ready to enter a real fight. We were obviously not ready for that, starting with me and ending with the last player. Now we have a more difficult path, we created it ourselves, and therefore there is not much that can be said.

Luka Lončar:

- We are all guilty, from the first to the last, and there is no escaping responsibility. We will analyze why this happened. It's hard to say right after the game. I mean, we prepared everything like for all the other matches so far. We simply came in powerfully, and we were too soft. Later, when we established a rhythm, we showed that we could clearly play with everyone. Even with them. Maybe it was even like that, close to getting there.

Loren Fatović:

- A bad start to the match cost us. We lost our aggressiveness. We tried to come back, but simply, it was too big a gap. We did not underestimate the Americans, of course, but that was the day I guess. It should be forgotten as soon as possible. Another, new, even fiercer tournament starts on Wednesday. I am sure that even the Spaniards are not too happy to play with us. We need to rest as soon as possible, forget about this and prepare. I'm sure we have our chances. We played with Spain quite a few times.

Maro Joković:

- The opening of the match was very bad for us. We only woke up in the third quarter, just like against Greece. The difference was too big to catch up with them, at one point they even led by 6 goals. Towards the end, there was some hope that we were on track to arrive, but no. You can't get that far behind, not in a competition of this level and against such lads.

Konstantin Harkov:

- The fact that I scored 5 goals doesn't mean much to me because we lost. We played badly, we didn't enter firmly and then the result is what it is.

—

Quarterfinal pairings, August 7:

Greece - Serbia

Italy – Hungary

USA – Australia

Croatia – Spain