MADRID, 27 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The national handball coach, Jordi Ribera, confessed the “ballast” that was the first half against Denmark in a defeat that cost them their ticket to the 2023 World Cup final this Friday, although he highlighted the “fight until the last minute” and the option to repeat the bronze from two years ago.
“The burden was the first part, we rushed into some easy shots and we should have had a little more patience in attack, especially in building slightly longer attacks. We were worried about defensive work and yet, the defensive level has been very good”, he said in statements provided by the Royal Spanish Handball Federation (RFEBM).
The ‘Hispanos’ coach explained the ability to react in a very uphill second half to have the option of winning the game in the last two minutes. “We are not talking about the 26 goals, because many have been in the final part, when people have desperately wanted to attack,” he commented.
“We have been well behind, we have lacked a few more goals in an easy counterattack in the first half so as not to leave with those five goals behind. But in the second half the team has continued to believe because it is a team that always fights until the last moment and the prize has been getting into the game and being there to try to turn it around”, he added.
Ribera confessed the stick of staying so close to the final, but asked for strength and give merit to another assault on an international podium, in what would be the tenth medal in the last 12 years. “Now it is clear that we have a time of mourning, but we must try to recover because we have third and fourth place ahead of us. You have to think that only 4 teams out of 32 have arrived here, including us who tirelessly continue to be in the semifinals and continue to fight for winning a medal,” he said.
“Now we have to recover. On top of that we now have a trip without dinner, with a doping control. After fifteen days of being here, it turns out that the day we have to travel to Sweden we have to do the doping control. But the important thing is that the team has the capacity to recover to play the last game”, he concluded.