Jordi Ribera: "This team competes even if everything seems lost"

Ángel Fernández: "It was the craziest game of my life"

MADRID, 25 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The national handball coach, Jordi Ribera, was proud of his team this Wednesday after showing that he competes "even if everything seems lost", as in the victory against Norway to advance to the semifinals of the 2023 World Cup where they pulled epic to get the pass after two extensions.

"The truth is that it was a very intense game. We had practically lost it at the end of the game. We were able to recover that ball with a situation of numerical inferiority when it seemed that everything was lost. I think that for us it has been like having again life again in that extension, it has been a rush and it has helped us a lot at the beginning", he said in statements provided by the Royal Spanish Handball Federation (RFEBM).

Ribera explained the problems that he could sense from the match, but recognized the key moment of forcing extra time and the victory with the save by Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas when the penalties were coming. "We knew what we had to try to solve, but it was difficult and we had an opponent who obviously played very well, with a great team, players who were very easy to have one on one and a goalkeeper who was very consistent," he said.

"We have always been in the game and we have had the chance to get to the last ball with them attacking and us with a goal up. In the end the right winger has thrown and Gonzalo has made a save. I am very happy for this group that has worked very hard well from the first day. For Spanish handball that is back in the semifinals. It is a team that is capable of competing until the last moment, even if it seems that everything is lost", he added.

For his part, the top Spanish scorer with eight goals at the ERGO Arena in Gdansk, Ángel Fernández, confessed that it was the "craziest" game of his life. "I think it was the craziest game of my life, I don't think even the last Champions League final was like this. The good thing is that they chose our side," he said.

"I don't even want to celebrate, I just want to go to bed and sleep. Starting tomorrow to prepare Denmark to the fullest," he concluded.