The ‘Hispanics’ look for a prestigious victory against France
Spaniards and Frenchmen, with the pass to the quarterfinals tied, want to say goodbye to the Main Round of the World Cup with the best feelings
MADRID, 21 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish men’s handball team, with the pass to the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Poland and Sweden already achieved mathematically, faces this Sunday (9:00 p.m. / Teledeporte) the last game of the Main Round of the championship against France, current champion Olympic and also with homework done.
It will perhaps be the least important duel in recent years in official competition between the two teams, accustomed to battling for medals and titles in all the tournaments in which they have met, but this time the good work of both teams in the World Cup he will give a truce and will avoid crossing paths again, if they are lucky, until the final.
Jordi Ribera’s men sealed their ticket to the quarterfinals, in addition to guaranteeing the dispute of the Paris 2024 Pre-Olympic, by beating the combative Slovenia (26-31) on Friday on the second day of the ‘Main Round’, a result that settled them in the first place of Group I.
With this, they added their fifth victory in the championship, the same number accumulated by Guillaume Gille’s team, which defeated Poland (26-24), Saudi Arabia (41-23) and Slovenia (31-35) in the Preliminary Round. to later win, in the second phase, Montenegro (35-24) and Iran (29-41).
“It’s going to be a tough game, France physically always wears you down a lot, both defensively and offensively. They’ve played all the games quite well, perhaps the most difficult one for them was the one against Poland, in the opening game. In this second phase they’ve been able to rotate the players well, because they have had more affordable games”, warned Jordi Ribera.
“We are interested in building, there is a lot of competition ahead and we need to generate our automatisms and that people feel comfortable playing together. The game in France is going to be a good touchstone,” he continued.
The far right Ferran Solé agrees with this idea. “In the end, the most important thing is that qualification for the round of 16 is already achieved, which was our first goal. This game is important above all to leave with good feelings,” he said.
“Winning it would be nice, but the most important thing is that the team feels good, comfortable, and that they continue playing at the same level to face the quarterfinals. I don’t know if the result of the game will be very transcendent or not, because I don’t we know which rival is going to touch us. The important thing is how it is played, not the final result”, he continued.
Opposite, the Olympic champion attends the event led by the brothers Nikola and Luka Karabatic and with references in their positions such as the pivot Ludovic Fàbregas or the left-backs Dika Mem and Melvyn Richardson, all Barça players.
DATASHEET.
–TEAMS.
SPAIN: Corrales (P), Perez de Vargas (P), Guardiola, A.Fernandez, Sole, Canellas, A.Dujshebaev, D.Dujshebaev, Maqueda, Casado, Figueras, Pecina, Odriozola, Sanchez-Migallon, Serdio, Garciandia and D.Fernandez.
FRANCE: Gerard (P), Bolzinger (P), Desbonnet (P), Mem, Nahi, Prandi, Mahe, Fàbregas, Luke Karabatic, Grebille, Richardson, Remili, Tournat, Nikola Karabatic, Lagarde, Briet, Porte and Lenne.
–PAVILLION: TAURON Kraków Arena.
–TIME: 9:00 p.m./Teledeporte.