Germany and Croatia reach world handball final
Spanish player R.A. Entrerios (L) struggleswith Croatian Bozidar Jovic during their semi-final match of the World HandballChampionships held at the Atlantic pavilion in Lisbon February 1, 2003.REUTERS/Jose Manuel Ribeiro
Germany and Croatia reach world handball final
Sat Feb 1, 2:47 PM ET
LISBON, Portugal – Germany and Croatia will meet Sunday in the final match of the men’s handball world championships.
Croatia, the Olympic titlist in 1996 and a silver medal winner at the 1995 worlds, advanced to the final by beating Spain 39-37 Saturday while European runner-up Germany beat defending champion France 23-22.
Spain and France will battle for third place.
Also, Olympic champion Russia and Hungary qualified for the 2004 Olympics in Athens by beating their opponents in the classification round.
Russia defeated Iceland 30-27, while Hungary beat Yugoslavia 34-33. Russia will play Hungary Sunday for fifth place, while Iceland faces Yugoslavia in the seventh-place match.
The top seven teams qualify for the Olympics.