The 'Hispanics' live their first major World Cup exam

The 'Hispanics' live their first major World Cup exam

Jordi Ribera's team looks for two key points against the doubtful and needy host Poland

MADRID, 17 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Spanish men's handball team will begin this Wednesday (8:30 p.m. / Teledeporte) the Main Round of the World Cup that Sweden and Poland are hosting with an always demanding duel against one of the hosts, a Polish team that has not given its best level until the moment.

The 'Hispanics' have fulfilled, as planned, in their first phase, much more 'affordable' than what is coming from now on in the second where they must be among the top two to get into the quarterfinals. They won their three games against Montenegro, Chile and Iran, leaving only a few 'shadows' against the Chileans, and with the bad news of Ian Tarrafeta's injury, replaced by a Pol Valera who already had minutes as soon as he arrived against the Iranians.

Spain achieved the maximum number of points, four, and now knows that the 'real' championship will practically begin. On the way to being at the crossroads, they will have to deal with important European rivals such as France, the other that has passed with full force, Slovenia, which did so with two points, and a Poland that has not shone excessively, but that will have the plus of the support that the TAURON Arena in Krakow will give him.

The Polish team is in a renewal phase that has kept it from the prominent positions in the last big events since, precisely, it snatched the World Cup bronze from the Spanish in 2015. Despite this, in the European past it already put in many problems for Jordi Ribera's men, who prevailed 27-28, with two key actions by Rodrigo Corrales, to get the ticket to the semifinals and the twelfth consecutive victory against this rival.

Before the tournament, due to its quality as host, a lot was expected of the Central European team, which started with a good image despite the defeat (24-26) against France, but their options were complicated by falling clearly against Slovenia (23- 32). The final victory (27-24) against Saudi Arabia did not clear up the doubts in Patrik Rombel's men, whose potential was also diminished by the loss before the World Cup of a key player like pivot Kamil Syprzak.

Even so, Poland is presented as the first major test for the current European runner-up, who must know how to get rid of the always tough and physical defense of her opponent, in theory also less pressured despite the fact that her few options are at stake and that she would be eliminated if you don't win The first line will have to be patient to find loopholes in the 6-0 Polish and avoid colliding with it and making unnecessary losses.

"Now we have three games that will decide the classification and the first is Poland, the home team, which will surely be a game with a lot of atmosphere. It is a great team and already in the last European Championship we had problems to beat them , with those two saves by Rodri (Corrales) that gave us the victory. It is a game that you have to prepare well and be very serious, typical of a team that knows that it is already entering the decisive moments", warned Jordi Ribera in statements provided by the RFEBM.

The coach is clear that as host, the Polish team "will want to win and please the people" and remarked that "it is a team that has a good shot from the outside, good one-on-one, in goal they have good goalkeepers and a defense very aggressive that always goes one on one and drags the players a lot". "For us it is going to be very important, not only the defensive level that we offer but also losing few balls in attack and not allowing ourselves to constantly make fouls", added Ribera.

For his part, winger Ángel Fernández assures that the Poles "are going to go to their death". "They want to clean up the image they have given in the group stage a bit. They have very little to lose, they are going to play looser and that is going to be very dangerous for us," he said.

SPAIN: Corrales (P), Perez de Vargas (P), Guardiola, A.Fernandez, Sole, Canellas, A.Dujshebaev, D.Dujshebaev, Maqueda, Casado, Figueras, Pecina, Odriozola, Sanchez-Migallon, Serdio, Garciandia and D.Fernandez.

POLONIA: Skrzyniarz (R), Morawski (R), Daszek, Jedraszczyk, Olejniczak, Walczak, Bis, Sicko, Pietrasik, Czuwara, Moryto, T.Gebala, M.Gebala, Dzialakiewicz, Krajewski, Chrapkowski, Dawydzik and Komarzewski.

--PAVILLION: TAURON Kraków Arena.

--TIME: 8:30 p.m./Teledeporte.