The Spanish coach Jordi Ribera, pointed out as the key to his team’s classification for the semifinals of the European the capacity for “suffering” that he has shown in each match, as well as the resistance to adapt to the different difficulties that have arisen throughout the tournament.
“In the first phase the team was very balanced, but then problems began to arise, such as the injury of Antonio-Garcia– or the topic of COVID with Joan -Cañellas- e Ian -Tarrafeta- and that unbalanced us a bit in the second phase, but the team has known how to suffer in each of the games and adapt to the difficulties that have arisen,” Ribera said in statements released by the Spanish Federation.
A suffering from which the Spanish team was not spared before Poland in a match in which he faced, as Jordi Ribera pointed out, a “double enemy”, the Polish team and the “pressure” of getting the ticket to the semifinals.
“These games always have two enemies: the rival in front of us and the pressure that we ourselves don’t put on. But we have been able to overcome them both thanks to the emotional balance that those two or three goal advantage that we have had for almost the entire second half and, above all, thanks to those two final stops of Rodri -Corrales-“, he explained.
read also
read also
The victory allowed the Hispanics reach the semifinals for the sixth time in a row European Championship, an achievement that, as Ribera stressed, rewards work.
“I am very happy to be able to be in the semifinals both for Spanish handball and for this group, because they have worked very well from the first day. It is a prize and now we have to try to take advantage of that semifinal,” said the Spanish coach.
Jordi Ribera highlighted that with the qualification for the semifinals of the tournament, the Spanish team also obtained the ticket for the next World Cup in Poland and Sweden, which will allow you to work with greater “peace of mind”.
“With the passage to the semi-finals we have also qualified for the World Cup, another extremely important objective for us, because the fact of not having to play in the qualifying phase gives you much more peace of mind,” Ribera stressed.
Adrià Figueras, shooting against the opposition of the Polish defense
For its part, Adrià Figueras He did not hesitate to point out goalkeeper Rodrigo Corrales as the great protagonist of the Spanish team’s classification for the semifinals of the European Championships in Hungary and Slovakia after sealing the triumph of the “Hispanics” over Poland with two stops in the final seconds.
“We knew it was going to be a very complicated match, not only because of the rival, but also because for us it was an emotionally tough match, because we were playing for qualification, but in the end with those two saves by Rodri and with the luck that sometimes is needed to be in the semi-finals, we have achieved the objective”, said Figueras in statements released by the Spanish Federation.
In this sense, the Spanish international pointed out that the team “will come in very handy” the two days that it now has ahead of it to be able to “rest” and “prepare” for the semifinal that it will play next Friday in Budapest against a rival still decide.
“I think that these two days off will come in handy for the team to recover well physically and reintegrate Joan -Cañellas- and Ian -Tarrafeta- into the team’s work, who have been out due to COVID, and prepare as well as possible for the semifinals. “Figueras concluded.
