‘The Guerreras are leaving the competition for the handball World Cup. The Spanish women’s team could use a draw against the Netherlands to go ahead, but clearly fell (29-21) and sang the farewell song round of 16 of the tournament. Qualification precludes eligibility for the pre-Olympic tournament.
The seriousness of the earlier defeat against the Czech Republic was revealed in the extraordinary situation in which Spain depended both on itself and on third parties. Brazil helped By beating the Czech team thoroughly Spaniards used ties against the Dutch.
They were never close. They were down by four points in the first half (13-9) and the difference almost doubled in the second half. There was no sign of the reaction of the Spanish seven in the match, which restarted with two consecutive goals scored by the Dutch. The timeout requested by Ambros Martín had no effect and the difference increased to 11 goals (25-14).