Euro hand: Spain remains at the top of the continent and heads to the Olympic Games 2020 in Tokyo - France 24

Stockholm (AFP)

The Spanish handball players retained their title of European champion by winning the final of Euro-2020 against Croatia 22 to 20, Sunday in Stockholm, and thus validate their ticket for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The Croats stumbled for the third time in the final of a European Championship and will have to go through an Olympic qualification tournament in Paris-Bercy, with France, Portugal and an African selection, where only two tickets will be issued for Tokyo -2020.

The Spaniards are the first to chain two consecutive European titles since the great team of Sweden, in gold at the Euro in 1998, 2000 and 2002. They also avoid the uncertainty of the TQO, them who had failed to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

In an ultra defensive final, Croatia escaped first with a better start to the game (10-7, 19th), but then experienced a huge air gap allowing the Spaniards to come back into contact and then take off (12 -11 at the break, then 16-12 at the 36th minute).

But the teammates of Domagoj Duvnjak, elected MVP of the tournament even before the final, gradually returned to Spain, to tackle the last ten minutes tied (18-18) and in a situation that they particularly appreciate.

Lino Cervar's men have wasted too many possessions, like a pass from Luka Stepancic on the foot of one of his teammates, a strong pass from Stepancic on the next attack, or walking of Igor Karacic in the last moments of the meeting.

On the Spanish side, Gonzalo Perez de Vargas has released another huge game in goals to repel the assaults of Duvnjak, while the young winger Aleix Gomez has shown a foolproof by registering two jets of seven meters in the money time , to put his team ahead.

Mute for 59 minutes, Alex Dujshebaev came out at the best moment of his silence to register the 22nd Spanish achievement, offering his teammates two goals ahead twenty seconds before the end, synonymous with a new European title.

Before climbing to the top step of the continental podium, Spain had failed four times in the final (1996, 1998, 2006 and 2016). With this third failure in the final, Croatia will have to wait to win the only title that is missing from its record (Olympic title in 1996, world title in 2003).

© 2020 AFP