22nd Men's Handball World Championship - Croatia - Poland 28:24 (13:11), postgame video interview with Sławomir Szmal

Szmal: w poprzednie mecze wkładaliśmy dużo serca. Dziś tego nie było

Szmal: We lack the spirit. It's as if something died down in us. We play without a faith in ourselves, in our team. In such moments it's as if we had already lost. It could be clearly seen in the second half when we were playing but without faith, simply speaking... Well, it's hard to judge it now.

Journalist: So what had happened with this fight? Because we come here with great hopes but we lost three of four matches against top teams.

Szmal: Well, with great hopes. For sure we come here to fight as we had said. No one did say that we came here with an intention to give up. I think that up to this moment we put our heart into the games. There were of course weak matches, when we didn't play the best but we really put our heart into them. I think we can't say the same today.

Journalist: I'm under an impression that today, first time since a long time, Croats were within the reach. That's why it hurts even more.

Szmal: Well, I think that they played in their own style. They worked out good situations to score and here Piotrek [Wyszomirski, the deputy goalkeeper] deserves to be praised. Also the defence in the first half was good, the lads were fighting. Unfortunately, there were too much counter-attacks in the second half and it's always disheartening for a goalkeeper.

Journalist: We are on the fourth place in this group. This means "a game of everything" awaits us, because the seventh place on the tournament guarantees us a right to play in the elimination for the Olympic Games. The eighth will not.

Another journalist: It's as if it was a final.

Szmal: Actually it was also a final today. If we had won today we needn't to worry any more. We would play for the fifth place. Unfortunately we didn't managed to win. I hope we will pull ourselves together and we are going to play a good game.

Journalist: Most likely it's going to be Hungary. So it's an opponent which is theoretically weaker. Seems we are going to be the favourite.

Szmal: On those Championships we can't really judge who is weaker or not. As we had said before we should think about ourselves, belive in ourselves and give 100 per cent of ourselves.