MADRID, 15 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish junior men’s handball team has advanced this Friday to the final of the European Championship in the category, which is being played at the Matosinhos Sports and Congress Center, after beating Serbia (29-32), and will fight on Sunday for the gold against Portugal or Sweden.
In this way, the junior ‘Hispanics’ return to a continental final six years later, so the 2002-03 generation secures its second consecutive European medal. “The boys deserve this final. To be able to be at this stage of a European Championship is to value the effort of competing every day at the highest level, it is a very important award, but now we have to go one step further and we are going to compete with all the confidence and enthusiasm,” said the Spanish coach, Rodrigo Reñones.
Antonio Martínez scored the first two goals for Spain. Serbia put up a 5:1 defense, while the ‘Hispanos’ put together a very active 6:0, with 9-10 meter runs that caused their opponent a lot of trouble. Thus, the Spanish began to open a gap on the scoreboard with a run of 1-6 in the first 10 minutes.
With an excellent Roberto Domenech, the team from Reñones continued to dominate but, although Dani Serrano raised the lead to +8 (6-14), the Balkan team remained in the fight for a partial 4-1 at halftime (10-15 ).
After the break, Serbia was placed to three (12-15), although a run of 1-6 returned the tranquility to the Spanish (13-21). A new arreón of the Balkans reduced the difference by two goals, and three consecutive goals by Antonio Martínez brought the great European final closer (29-32).