The selections of Spain, current runner-up in the world, and Denmark certified their classification for the semifinals of the World Cup in Spain , after beating Germany (26-21) and Brazil (30-25) on Tuesday in a quarterfinal in which Spanish and Danish extended the full of triumphs that they sign in the championship.
A sensational streak that the Spanish team will try to prolong next Friday in the semifinals in which Jose Ignacio Prades’ team will face the winner of the duel between Norway, current European champion, and Russia , silver in the last Olympic Games in Tokyo .
It will not be much easier for the Danish team that will seek the ticket for the grand final against the winner of the quarterfinal match between France, the current Olympic champion, and Sweden, semifinalist in the Tokyo Games.
The Warriors will play their fourth semifinal
Nothing seems, however, to scare a Spanish team that sealed its ticket for the fight with the medals with a whole lesson in character, in a match that could not have started worse for the “Guerreras”, who after seven minutes they marched with an adverse 0-4 on the scoreboard.
But neither the eight minutes it took for the Spanish team to score their first goal, nor the forceful play that Germany displayed at the start of the match undermined the faith of Jose Ignacio Prades’s team.
Especially from the youngest, from players like Paula Arcos, Maitane Etxeberria or Carmen Campos who showed that the name “Guerreras” is not a reminiscence of the past, but a sign of present and future.
Clinging to the aggressiveness of Arcos, Exteberria and Campos, the Spanish team completely revolutionized their game both in attack and defense, where Prades began to remind the solid team of past days.
An improvement that allowed Spain not only to erase its disadvantage, but to completely turn the score around with a devastating partial 11-3 in the last fourteen minutes of the first half, which allowed the “Guerreras” to reach the break with a four-point lead (14-10).
Positive dynamics that the Spanish team continued in the second half in which goalkeeper Merche Castellanos, who closed the match with 40 percent saves, joined the party.
Arguments that allowed the Spanish team to reach an income of five goals (18-13), that neither the change of advanced defense proposed by Germany, nor the decision of the Germans to attack with seven outfield players managed to erase, as reflected on 26- 21 end.
A triumph that will allow Spain to play the semifinals of a World Cup for the fourth time in its history, after finishing fourth in 2009 in China, third in 2011 in Brazil and second two years ago in Japan, where only a controversial final action I deprive the “Guerreras” of the gold medal.
Denmark returns to the fight for the medals
If the Spanish team will repeat its presence in the fight for the medals for the second time in a row, Denmark put an end to a wait of eights, after sealing this Tuesday the ticket for a semifinal that it had not played since the 2013 World Cup in Serbia
. of which I reflect the clear 30-25 final by which Jesper Jensen’s men defeated Brazil in the quarterfinals.
Not even the outstanding performance of goalkeeper Sandra Toft, who closed the match with seventeen saves, after touching almost 50 per cent of saves in the first half, did not deprive a Danish team of suffering, who showed that they are less fearsome when they cannot run.
Precisely what prevented the Brazilian team, perfectly led in attack by veteran Ana Paula Rodrigues, for up to ten minutes to go.
A time in which despite the efforts of the winger Adriana Cardoso, top scorer of the game with ten goals, succumbed to the greater variety of resources of the Danish team.
And it is that to the stops of Toft, who continued immeasurable in the second half, and the winger Laerke Pedersen, infallible throughout the match, the long shots of Mie Hojlund and the goals of the pivot Kathrien Heindahl were added in the final minutes.
Arguments against which Brazil could do little, despite the step forward taken in this World Cup, has not yet reached the level of the team that in 2013 was proclaimed world champion in Belgrade.
