Spain beat Russia 25:24 and got another 2 points. Beginning of the match was very tight, neither team could gain any considerable advantage. With a few minutes to go, Russians managed to gain 3-goal lead (13:10) – mostly thanks to their goalkeeper and incautious Spanish actions. However, Spain caught up a bit and halftime result was 14:13. Russia started having troubles at the beginning of the second half when one of the players got 2-minute-suspension. Spanish team made a good use of it and took the lead 17:16 in 39. minute. They kept the lead until 55. minute (22:22). Russian hopes didn’t come back for long though as Spain got away again and won in the end by one goal. One of the brightest points of Spain was Carmen Martín who scored 9 out of 9 penalty throws.
In the second game of Group A, Hungary beat Poland 29:23. The very beginning of the match was tight. One might have thought that Poles had drawn conclusions from the unfortunate game against Spain. Mistakes in attack did happen but Hungarian team also wasn’t perfect and the result was tight. Poland lasted 10 minutes this way and started doing exactly the same things as in the previous game. When in 14. minute the result was 7:3 for Hungary, coach Kim Rasmussen called for a time-out. It didn’t change a thing and the nightmare of Poles in attack kept going. Hungarians stayed strong in defence and Poland seemed to have no plan for that. Their shots were either saved by Hungarian goalkeepers, or they were blocked, or they couldn’t even throw and the passive play was called. Besides good Hungarian defending, there were also unforced errors. Coach Rasmussen tried to change the situation by changing players – pivot Joanna Drabik and back Klaudia Pielesz entered the court but they were soon back on the bench. Hungary made their own errors but not as many, plus they could count on their goalkeeper Eva Kiss, while Polish goalies weren’t much help. Halftime result was 14:7 for Hungary.
The second half started a bit better for Poland as they managed to score 3 goals in 4 minutes but it soon ended when Monika Stachowska got sent to the bench for 2 minutes. Hungarians stormed ahead and in 39. minute the gap was already 10 goals (20:10). The number of Poland’s errors was horrible. Just by the end of the match, Polish goal started working a little better when Prudzielnica saved a few throws. It allowed Poland to reduce the gap a little and in 57. it was “only” 4 goals (26:22) but Hungary made use of another losses and misses and won by 6 goals in the end.
STANDINGS:
Spain 4
Hungary 3
Russia 1
Poland 0
TEXT: MARTYNA USNARSKA
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