Back in 2003, a very young Raúl Entrerríos made his debut with the Spanish National Team, which at that time were not yet known as the Hispanics. This Tuesday, 18 years later in Slovakia and at 40, the Asturian equaled David Barrufet as the player with the most caps with the National Team with 280. It was in comfortable victory (18-30) of Jordi Ribera’s men in Bratislava in the third match of the EHF Euro Cup 2022. While a large part of the teams are playing the ticket to the next European or the Pre-Olympic, Spain does not have that concern after conquering the last two continental appointments. For this reason, play this competition with the two hosts of the next European Championship (Hungary and the aforementioned Slovakia) and Croatia, runner-up in Europe.
Spain, despite the fact that it is an official tournament and that it was defeated in the first two duels, brought to Bratislava a team that alternated the block that 38 days ago won the World Cup bronze in Egypt with new faces (Married, who debuted a great, Tarrafeta …) and others who returned after a while absent (Balaguer, Gurbindo, Migallón …). After the Tokyo Games this summer, The Selection will have a cycle change that Ribera wants to take step by step. From the start, in Slovakia, two were the proper names: Corrales and Solé. The Galician, in the goal, and the extreme, in attack, They shone in a forceful first half of Spain, from less to more: 8-16, with 12 saves from one and nine goals from another, more than the entire rival team.
Ribera started with a defensive 5-1, with a very intense back block against a stuck Slovak attack. Spain, despite being a veteran team, feel very comfortable on the counter, running, and Radoslav’s team could not slow down. In the second half, with a wide distance on the scoreboard, the coach moved the bench so that the 16 displaced to Bratislava enjoyed minutes. The National Team arrived in Slovakia on Tuesday morning, added the first two points in the tournament, and returned to Madrid on the same day, although after the World Cup what matters is getting to Tokyo in the best possible way.
At that appointment will be Entrerríos who, after the postponement of the Games due to the coronavirus, delayed his withdrawal one more year. Things of the pandemic and the dream for the Olympic gold. This Saturday, at 20:00 in the friendly match against Argentina at the WiZInk Center in Madrid, a rival that, unlike Slovakia, did participate in the last World Cup and caressed the quarterfinals. Raúl, before the team trained by Manolo Cadenas, He will become the Spanish player with the most caps. Whatever games they are, he will go down in history as one of the best Spanish handball players ever.