Croatia and France are the biggest rivals for gold at the World Handball Championship, any handball expert will confirm this, as well as a passive bystander. Both teams leave everyone breathless, and the best thing is that they have yet to display their best.

Learned how to deal with pressure and absorb lessons

However, each team has it`s most powerful link, without which they don`t function equally. This link in the French team is surely Nikola Karabatic, the best handball player in the world, capable of playing three positions, along with the defence.

He is full of strength and dominates, simply, he is above everyone, which is why he is the biggest threat for the Croatian team. When he was younger, before turning 24, which is his age today, he would snap under pressure and under-performed against “his” Croatia, but now he has matured and always plays best against Croatia, best by far.

Therefore, it is especially interesting that he looks like Sylar, a character of US hit series “Heroes”, a villain who absorbs the powers of other heroes and uses them for his own benefits. Convincingly, he is the most powerful and most dangerous character and to beat him, others have to unite. But, whoever watched the show, already knows this.

The difference is not that big in the handball world either; Karabatic faces Croatian heroes with his ammunition and to beat him, everyone must focus hard, be harmonious and what is most important, unprecedented unity must prevail,

Against the best in the world with unity

With proper Ivano Balic, the one who played a year ago, this would be no problem, but as Karabatic is on the rise, Croatia`s Ivano is experiencing his downfall. Physically speaking, not creatively, because his imagination is still the same, but his body can no longer perform what his mind sets out to do.

Karabatic uses all this to his advantage, as if he has managed to absorb the powers of Ivano Balic, like Sylar, and now uses them against every team that stands on his path. While he plays against Ivano, he wants to keep an eye on him on the court and he is doing it better and better, as if he can read his mind.

Croatian handball heroes must be united and this is the only way they can beat the French and show them that what they experienced in the second round was no coincidence, but reality.

PHOTO: Croatia Brings France Down 22:19