As it could not be otherwise, after beating Bahrain (12) and Slovenia (10), Spain certified its qualification for the Paris Olympic Games with a third official victory against Brazil in the Granollers Pre-Olympic Games (26-28 ). So Jordi Ribera’s Hispanics will be at the Olympic event, for the 12th time in history for Spain, in search of the only gold that is missing from the list of major tournaments.
In its 11 previous competitions, the Spanish team won four medals, all bronze (Atlanta’96, Sydney’00, Beijing’08 and Tokyo’20).
Virtually qualified for Paris after Friday’s victory against Slovenia, and with the only requirement of not losing more than 18 goals against Brazil, the Spanish team played with the placidity of having its homework done and with the guarantee of unconditional support up its sleeve. of 5,500 spectators in the stands of the Palau d’Esports in Granollers.
The only incentive at stake was to secure first position in the group – Slovenia competed for the other place by beating Bahrain (32-26) – to end up being one of the first two seeds in the Paris draw. The difference between being first or second was not trivial: avoiding Denmark or France in the group stage. The fire or the embers, the world champion (the Nordics) or the Olympic and European champion (the French). Spain chose logic and avoids the Blues.
To do this, Hispanics took the process of Brazil very seriously. Only by losing 5 goals would they be left without first position, so Ribera brought out his best starting seven to begin to get the victory on track with a 0-2 start, which could not be extended to 3 until the local hero’s 8-11, Antonio García, but above all, thanks to the saves of an inspired Rodrigo Corrales (8 saves and 40% success rate).
Brazil, very combative and with a spectacular Rangel in goal, compressed the score (14-14 at halftime, 26-26 with 2 minutes remaining).
Spain, which went down by five goals with Ian Tarrafeta’s 16-21 after a 0-4 partial, had to end up being epic and breaking a lot of stones to win by 2 goals (26-28), with Alex Dujshebaev and captain Gede Guardiola assuming scoring responsibility in the final minutes.
Rodrigo Corrales’ 15 stops ended up sealing the victory to travel pristine to Paris in July.
The Olympic tournament will present a spectacular poster with the 12 best teams in the world. The Hispanics avoid the Great Dane, the other first seed, and will have France as one of the five safe rivals in the first phase; The other four will come from Pot 2 between Norway and Croatia, Pot 3 between Germany and Hungary or Portugal, Pot 5 between Sweden and Egypt, and Pot 6 between Argentina and Japan – the Cinderellas of the draw.
