Not enough character and Austria knocks Spain out of the European Handball Championship | Kinds of sports

The Spanish handball team, currently second on the continent, said goodbye to the European Championships in Germany after being eliminated in the first stage, drawing 33-33 with Austria yesterday, in a match that taught the Latin Americans a lesson in character that they have given in the second half. A time when Jordi Ribera’s men had to play without their great star, defender Alex Duyshebaev, who saw a straight red card three minutes before the break when the referees, after reviewing video images, judged he had hit Lukas Hutechek in the face.

The European Championship has already got off to a rocky start with a resounding defeat (29-39) that Spain suffered from Croatia on the first day. The setback forced the Latin Americans to win all their games, something they were unable to do on Tuesday against Austria despite being in a position to prevail until the final minutes.

In fact, Spain spent the last 45 seconds with a lead (33-32) on the scoreboard after Aleisha Gomez’s penalty, but Austria, who, unlike the Spanish team, were worth a draw, enjoyed the final position that Bozovic made. it was not for nothing that the final score was 33-33, which already made Imanol Garciandia’s last final shot fruitless.

A painful end to a tournament and a match in which Spain never found a way to demonstrate the solid image that had seen them reach the last four continental finals. Yesterday, when he played better in defense, when Alex Duyshebaev cut off all the passing lines from the advanced position, and Viran Morros swept everything behind him, there was a sending off that changed everything. Without Duyshebaev, he was left not only without his big star, but also without the man who led the defense with his speed of feet and hands. A circumstance that doomed Jordi Ribera’s team to leave with a two-goal deficit (15-17) to the dressing room, where a plot was fabricated that allowed Spain to react at the beginning of the second half. The start of the second period, in which the Spanish team, thanks to the saves of Gonzalo Perez de Vargas and especially the goals of Ian Tarrefetal, made the score 28-28 with just over nine minutes left. . Spain were not successful and eventually abandoned the draw at 33, which kept them out of the European Championship.

You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes at Facebook And Xor register here to receive our weekly newsletter.