Spain ties an incomprehensible match and ends up as a group leader |

Finish 22-22 against Croatia and have to wait for the outcome of the match between Norway and Slovenia to meet their opponent in the semifinals.

The last day. His hysteria Your dangers Your uncertainty The last day of the group stage of a championship gives meaning to that format. Without their exaltation, all titles will be decided at direct crossings. The bored fans will claim it.

On a last day, for example, Spain made the lie a work of art. It was in the 2013 World Cup. Before the apotheosis of the final at Palau Sant Jordi, the title began to be lifted on the last day of the group stage in Madrid. If he won or drew against Croatia, he ended up as a leader and faced France in the quarterfinals. If you lose, the road to gold was simplified. The selection came to have a ball to finish as a leader and a single man, Albert Rocas, more alone than ever, slammed him against the outside of the post. Defeat! Cheer up! That was a hoax, of course, but it was so beautiful, so exciting, to consecrate the format of the group stage.

That is why what happened this Wednesday in the European was incomprehensible. In a tournament crowded with unbalanced teams and matches, the organization snatches interest from one of the few interesting. Already qualified for the semifinals, Spain and the same rival that then, Croatia, played the first place in Group I, they could divide the rivals, but …

His confrontation was scheduled two hours before the meeting to decide Group II and undid the show in assumptions. Supposedly the winner will be measured with Slovenia; the loser is supposed to meet Norway; supposedly the Scandinavian team was more fearsome for their leader, Sander Sagosen. But it was all that, assumptions. First because the leader, Norway, could lose to Slovenia and turn everything around. Second, because Spain, by style, may find it better to run into Norway than with Slovenia.

No one was sure if they should strive to win and, in the end, of course, nobody won. Spain and Croatia simply agreed to a strange draw (22-22) in a more strange game yet.

To summarize, the team won six goals (13-19, min. 40) and then spent 12 minutes without scoring. To explain, many players, coaches and, above all, the referees were misguided. The game seemed friendly in too many moments and he opted twice, once on each side, when the usual substitutes of both teams regained the lost intensity. At the beginning of the second part, Spain, with Alex Dujshebaev in the advanced and launched in attack, opened a gap that seemed final. And at the end of the second part, Croatia, pushed by Igor Karacic and its hardness, remade equality. In the last minute, a goal from the Aleix Gmez end of penalty, the first of the selection from minute 47, equal the score and there was no more action.

The objective of the two teams, which was not to be harmed either physically or psychologically, was halfway fulfilled. Both the referents of Spain and those of Croatia, Joan Caellas, Ral Entrerros, Luka Cindric or Domagoj Duvnjak, rested to a greater or lesser extent, but in both benches doubts were opened up to now nonexistent. On the part of the national team, for example, the 12 minutes without goals were not the best possible prologue for the semifinals.

In any case, Spain, with a better goal average, remained the group leader and finally faced Slovenia in the semifinals. In another rare match, marked by the rest of their owners, Norway beat the Balkan team and defined the crossings. The last day. His hysteria Your dangers Your uncertainty Everything disappeared for the interests of the organization.