Russia have beaten the reigning European silver medallist Spain by 28:26, after a real fierce battle that took place on the court of Frederikshavn. Both teams could have obtained the two points today, but it was the conducted by Evgeny Trefilov who managed better the last minutes. The Spanish team couldn’t take advantage from some situations where they were in powerplay and Russia did not spare.
Neither defenses were efficient enough to stop such hard shots from back players in the initial minutes. It was a very hard work for the Spanish defensive players who suffered two exclusions in seven minutes. Both attacks were productive, and that is why scoreboard showed such an equal result during the entire game. Marta Mangué, Nerea Pena and Carmen Martín were the main weapons for Spanish team while Russian players Irina Bliznova and Anna Vyakhereva scored almost the half of the decisive goals. Defensive systems were changed in both sides of the court, trying to find the solution to the problems, but it wasn’t enough, as both teams led the score more than once with a difference of two goals but finally no one took advantage of it. In the second half Spain couldn’t take advantage of the powerplays and instead of breaking the game, they let Russia breathe, so equality came back on the scoreboard. Eight minutes before the final whistle, Russians reacted and set a two-goal-difference in the next few minutes. Irina Bliznova scored the definitive +3 for her team, making it impossible for the Spanisht o react.
Coach Jorge Dueñas said after the duel that “Spain played a really serious game, where there had options to win as well. But in powerplay situations a lot of mistakes were made, which finally condemned the team to lose these points”. Tomorrow at 18:15h Spain and current Group D leader Romania will face each other in another interesting fierce battle at the Arena Nord of Frederikshavn.
Group D results
Romania 36 : 20 Kazakhstan
Russia 28 : 26 Spain
Norway 39 : 13 Puerto Rico
Group D tomorrow matches
16.00h Russia – Puerto Rico
18.15h Spain – Romania
20.30 Norway- Kazakhstan
