Spaniards better than Croats: La Furia defends European gold

(Patria) - The Spanish handball team defended its European champion title after defeating Croatia 22:20 in the final in Stockholm. For La Furia, it is the third title of the Old Continent champion, and for the Croats, the third defeat in finals.

Croatia opened the match much better and with a strong defense limited Spain to a small number of goals. In the 18th minute, the Cowboys took a 10:7 lead, and it seemed everything was going their way.

Few believed then that they would fall into a major crisis of 11 minutes without scoring a goal, which the Spaniards used to turn the game around, going into halftime with a 12:11 lead.

The key detail of the first half was the change in goal for Spain when Gonzalo Perez de Vargas replaced Rodrigo Corrales and simply “locked” his net.

The second half started brilliantly for Spain, which took a 16:12 lead, capitalizing on technical errors in Croatia's game and the fact that they played without a goalkeeper in attack – seven against six. However, Marin Šego also got hot, and La Furia did not score for nine minutes, so Croatia reduced the deficit to 16:15 in the 45th minute.

Marino Marić equalized at 18:18 in the 49th minute, and a great drama ensued. Spain struggled in attack, and in the 54th minute, Stepančić scored to give Croatia a 19:18 lead. In the next attack, Abello equalized from a penalty to make it 19:19.

In the 57th minute, Maqueda was sent off, and Croatia had a man advantage, but they did not capitalize on the attack. The Spaniards opted to play without a goalkeeper in the next action and scored to take the lead, but Brozović, after a quick center, hit Spain's net for another equalizer (20:20).

A minute and a half before the end, Gomez scored from a seven-meter throw for 21:20, and the Croats made a big mistake when Karačić committed a traveling violation, and La Furia had the attack for the win. Dushebayev scored 25 seconds before the end, and Spain defended its European champion title.