The 'Guerreras' finalize their set-up for the European at the Carpati Trophy

The Spanish women's handball team will face Serbia, Austria and Romania

MADRID, 28 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Starting this Thursday, the Spanish women's handball team will contest the Carpathi Trophy, which will be held from Thursday to Saturday in Romania, against Serbia, Austria and the host of a friendly tournament that will serve the national team in preparation for the European Championship 2022.

Barely a month before the continental trophy begins on November 4, the 'Guerreras' will play three games in which the team led by José Ignacio Prades will be able to measure their competitive level and, thus, finish propping up the team facing to the great continental event.

The first rival to beat will be Serbia, which Spain will face this Thursday, September 29, starting at 4:30 p.m. Both teams have met six times before (4 official matches and 2 friendlies), with five wins and one loss for the Spanish.

Much more recent is the last precedent against Austria, a team that Spain overwhelmingly beat (31:19) in the Preliminary Round of the 2021 World Championship. In total, the two teams have faced each other in 12 games ( 8 official and 5 friendlies), with 8 victories for ours for the 5 victories of the Austrians.

The third and final game will be against the host team, Romania, against which Spain has played up to 39 games (16 official and 23 friendlies). In this case, the Romanians have achieved 23 victories for the 14 of the Spanish, with two games in which both teams signed the tables. Of course, in the last three clashes the Warriors have clearly prevailed, including in the first game of the 2019 World Cup in Japan, which ended 16:31 and marked the beginning of a beautiful path to the silver medal in Kumamoto.

Precisely, the national coach has valued the Carpati Trophy, defining it as "an important tournament to see the group in competition in difficult games and against good rivals". "There is no better scenario for the players than to see them compete and this is going to help us detect synergies to decide on the final list for the European Championship, which is very close", he pointed out.

Regarding the rivals, the coach has stated that "there is no easy rival in Europe" and that "there are three teams with a lot of tradition that have been working very well in recent years, also Austria, which had no luck in the World Cup with covid -19, but it proved to be very competitive; we must be very consistent in defense and make few mistakes in attack to have a positive balance of the tournament", he concluded.

The state of form of the Spanish team is, without a doubt, encouraging for the 2022 European Championship. After signing a remarkable World Cup in which they achieved fourth position, the team was very solvent in the qualifying phase for the continental event, achieving five victories in the six games played against Portugal, Slovakia and Hungary, the only team that was able to beat Spain.

In addition, the Spanish continued their upward trend at the Mediterranean Games in Oran, in Algeria, where they revalidated the gold medal and became champions. Now, with the European Championship just around the corner, the Warriors face the Carpati Trophy as a new opportunity to grow as a team, continue to accumulate good feelings and enlarge the record of victories.

This friendly tournament is also presented as a unique opportunity to fight to be on the final list for the European Championship. Of the 35 players pre-selected for the European Championship, a maximum of 20 may be on the final list and defend the national team's shirt at the great continental event, which will be played between November 4 and 20 in Montenegro, North Macedonia and Slovenia.