Croatia 5/5, Macedonia 4/5, Belarus along with Bosnia and Herzegovina to President Cup

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Group stage on World Championship in Qatar is behind us and we can say that SEHA GSS League's participants have achieved good results with Croatia and Macedonia reaching the Last 16 while Belarus will along with Bosnia and Herzegovina continue with the championship in President Cup semi-final playing against each other which means SEHA GSS League will have its participant in President Cup's final, in a battle for 17th place.

 

We start with group A where Belarus national team has managed to reach fifth place in the end losing 4 matches and winning one, against Chile. However, it is important to state that they have presented good handball playing great, narrow matches even against current title holders Spain (38:33), hosts Qatar (26:22), Slovenia (29:34) and Brasil (29:34). Their best scorers so far were brothers Rutenka - Barcelona's Siarhei with 27 and Meshkov's Dzianis with 22. Their third best scorer is Maxim Babichev scoring 19 goals from 23 attempts which gives him great 83% scoring ratio! Best Belarus goalkeeper is also Meshkov's Vitali Charapenka with 39 saves.

 

Remaining three SEHA GSS League's participants were playing in group B with Croatia winning all five matches and finishing first, Macedonia losing only to Croatia and finishing second and Bosnia and Herzegovina finishing fifth in their first WCh appearance managing to beat only Iran.

 

Although they did not make it to the Last 16 we can say that Bosnian national team players have in their first appearance on WCh proved everyone they belong here. It is hard to say how close they were to reaching Last 16 which would be an amazing success for them. They have played an excellent tournament so far losing with only -2 to Austria and -3 to Macedonia and Tunisia. Their best scorers on tournament so far are Dejan Malinović with 19 goals, Muhamed Toromanović with 16 and Meshkov's Ivan Karačić with 14. They will now meet Belarus in President Cup semi-final.

 

Macedonia is on the other side doing great. A team consisted mostly of Vardar's and Metalurg's players is playing high quality handball and will in eight-finals play Slovenia! So far they have 4 wins flying on wings of their best scorer Kiril Lazarov who is with 38 goals currently third best scorer of the competition. In the final match of the group stage they have managed to outplay Austria in a direct battle for the second place. They are feeling great and are full of optimism ahead of eight-finals clash against Slovenia.

 

Finally we have Croatia which is, along with Spain from group A, the only remaining team without a lost point after the group stage. They are playing great in both directions and fast in transition with Ivan Čupić as their best scorer with 28 goals which makes him fifth best scorer of the competition. Zagreb's captain Zlatko Horvat is on the other hand using his minutes outstandingly too already scoring 24 goals which surely makes them best right-winger duo of the competition. PPD Zagreb's Filip Ivić is also doing great between bars having 39% saving ratio. As top positioned team in group B, Croatia will on Sunday in eight-finals play group A's fourth - Brasil.