Dagur Sigurdsson’s Croatia side came into this clash with numerous injury concerns, and by the end of the match almost half the team were walking wounded on court.
With David Mandic out due to a hand injury, Marin Jelinic came into the side, but, as usual, the Icelandic coach surprised everyone, this time leaving out Igor Karacic from his match squad.
Croatia were virtually out of the World Cup when they trailed Hungary by four goals with less than five minutes left in the match.
However, despite having three of their profiles injured and struggling to play their best handball, the Croatians, roared on by raucous crowd in Zagreb, launched a wild comeback, and equalized with a minute left in the game.
Hungary had every opportunity to decide the game in their final attack, but wasted their opportunity with eight seconds remaining.
Hungary desperately looked for a breakthrough or seven-metre option against Croatia, but eventually ran out of steam, eventually seeing a free throw under passive play blocked by the Croatian defence who were desperate to give their captain Domagoj Duvnjak playing his final tournament for the national a new decisive match.
With 10 seconds left, goalkeeper Ivan Pesic scooped up the loose ball, had a number of forward pass options and off-loaded the ball to Zvonimir Srna. Duvnjak, back on court, acted a decoy to open the defence, leaving Sipic with an open chance to scored the decisive goal.
This prompted an explosion of emotion on court, the whole Croatian delegation running on in sheer joy.
Thanks to this win, Croatia advances to the semi-finals, where they will face the winner of the quarterfinal clash between France and Egypt.