The Spanish women’s handball team defeated Kazakhstan this Wednesday (34:17) in the first game of the World Championship held in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, a comfortable victory to lay foundations and leave behind the nervousness of the debut.
The Guerreras went from less to more and, as expected, ended up defeating an on-paper inferior rival in Group G. The Kazakh team surprised with their outside shooting at the start and Spain fell into inaccuracies as they searched for their place in defense. Ambros Martín’s players got going after 10 minutes and found the goals in the final stages of the first half, which they resisted at times.
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María Prieto, Maitane Echeverria, Alicia Fernández and Paulina Pérez carried the offensive load in this first act, with many rotations in the guerreras. The Canarian coach measured his efforts in his debut at a major tournament and had all his players compete with the changes.
After the good work of Kaba Gassama and Lysa Tchaptchet, Spain came back with more goals in the second half thanks to good work from Sole López and Maitane, but above all they adapted in defense. The exchange of goals also worked for Merche Castellanos, who made a few saves that gave the Spanish team the rhythm on the counterattack. The Warriors dropped the win early and with confidence and still had plenty of minutes left to develop and test.
Spain will face Ukraine on Friday (8:30 p.m., TDP) and Brazil on Sunday. The world champion goes to the games, second to seventh places have a guaranteed place in the pre-Olympic games.
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