TNT Sports
Hungarians feel confident
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Published 24/08/2004 at 18:47 GMT+1
Hungary captain Istvan Pasztor said after their hard-fought 30-25 quarter-final win against South Korea that he was confident he had the players to beat world champions Croatia in the semi-finals. In the second quarter-final, Croatia dominated hosts Greec
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"If we play as well as we did today then we have a chance against Croatia," he said, underlining that his ambitions go higher than a bronze medal.
"If we can win against Germany and Korea then nothing is impossible."
Hungary, fourth at both the 1980 and 1988 Olympics, played well and led 14-13 at half-time but a five-minute period in the second half almost cost them the match.
Twelve minutes after half-time they found themselves trailing 22-20 with Gyula Gal in the sin bin.
But a penalty save from Janos Szathmari was the impetus they needed and once Peter Lendvay levelled immediately afterwards, they began to control the match.
Laszio Nagy scored nine goals for the Hungarians while Kyung-Shin Yoon's seven points were overshadowed by the penalty miss.
"Szathmari was fantastic, very calm when we needed it. That was important," said Pasztor.
Croatia, looking to add Olympic gold to the World Championship title they won last year, made heavy work of their contest with Greece.
Mirza Dzomba led the scoring with 11 points but the Croatians struggled in the second half before emerging a 33-27 winners.
"We have played Hungary many times and we usually win," said Croatian goalkeeper Vlado Sola. "However, this will be very different and we can't afford to lose our concentration like we did today."
The semi-final line-up will be completed later on Tuesday when Germany take on Spain and France play defending champions Russia.
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