Jordi Ribera: "We have to have a great game to be able to enter the dream of the final"

   MADRID, 26 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Spanish handball coach, Jordi Ribera, highlighted the "capacity for adaptation and suffering" of his team and warned that they will have to complete a "great game" against Denmark in the semifinals of the European Championship to "be able to enter the dream of the final ".

"We are in the semifinals and the best teams are arriving. Those who do their homework the best remain. Denmark has a great team, they have had a very easy path, they have won with great solvency and a good rotation of minutes. It is important that we recover, against Norway it was a very exhausting game. Tomorrow we have to have a great game to be able to enter that dream of the final, "said the coach in the preview of this Friday's match (6:00 p.m.).

Ribera valued the "complicated" victory (34-35) against a "great" Norway in the quarterfinals. "They had rotated during the tournament and that meant more difficulties for us. That's why for us it was a much more meritorious victory," he celebrated. "It was a very long game, with many alternatives, with many changes. I am very happy for the group's ability to adapt and suffer, and for the victory," he added.

"Playing with two pivots was an alternative that we had trained and we had already used it. We were looking to disrupt a defense that is very organized, that touches a lot. It allowed us to free the alterals and make the inside game cause problems for them, and in the end it came out quite well. It says a lot about the adaptability of the players", he analyzed about this technical variant.

For his part, winger Joan Cañellas pointed out that the team is "happy and tired." "Yesterday's game was incredible. But Denmark is coming. We know how difficult it is going to be. We will try to prepare as well as possible and put a great team in trouble. If we manage to squeeze them and pass the pressure on them, since they are so good and not have been seen so far in this championship against the ropes, it could be our best asset", concluded the 36-year-old player.