Croatia hold off Iceland in fiery clash
The Men’s EHF EURO 2026 main round is fully underway after the opening match of the stage in Malmö, where Croatia took the first points up for grabs in group II. Croatia beat Iceland 30:29 following a close 60 minutes in which they always had the upper hand, albeit very often only by one goal.
The outcome was decided late, with Dino Slavic making a critical penalty save inside the last three minutes and Mateo Maraš clinching the victory for Croatia as he pulled them away to 29:26 in the next attack. Iceland wing Óðinn Ríkharðsson netted twice to reduce the distance but it was too late, with his final goal scored eight seconds before the buzzer.
We played a fantastic game. The guys sacrificed everything, left everything on the floor, so very proud of the team. This is a very good victory for us coming back from the disappointment against Sweden, where we didn’t play our game. We did that today and I’m very happy.
It’s difficult to chase a team throughout the game. We were also missing four penalties, four, five really good chances, so that’s also really tough and expensive in a game like that. Usually when you lose with one goal it’s the small things here and there.
