The Croatian futsal team said goodbye to the SOCCA world championship in Budapest with a 3:2 victory in a friendly match against France.

Croatia did not wait for the help of Greece to advance to the round of 16 of the World Cup. In the earlier game played, the Greeks lost to the fighting Chileans and thus said goodbye to the knockout stage. Chile won 3:1 in a game in which they mostly defended, but they simply knew how to take advantage of their opportunities.

"The impressions are not very good. We didn't pass the group. The third World Cup where we didn't make it past the round of 16, this time not even the group," said Croatian captain Marko Pavlović.

On the other hand, the Croatian national team still has a friendly match against France, in which they recorded their third consecutive victory. After Spain and Iran, Željko Ostrman's team was better than the national team, which in terms of quality belongs to the very top of the world.

"Finally a good game from our side. Maybe even the best in the tournament. I think if we had played like this the whole time, we would certainly have passed the group and maybe made it beyond the round of 16. "It remains regrettable that we were relegated from the group, but I hope that the boys, who will go to the World Championship next year, will achieve this historic success," explained Pavlović.

Without several players who were not available to the coach, Croatia opened the game better and took the lead after Alen Grafina stole the ball from the French goalkeeper and scored for 1:0. The same player scored the second goal of the match. And that after an excellent solo breakthrough when he dribbled out the French defender and sent the ball undefended into the upper part of the net.