Spain’s Joan Canellas reacts to his team’s loss to Poland in the bronze medal match at Lusail Multipurpose Hall yesterday. PICTURE: Mamdouh

By Yash Mudgal/Doha

Former runners-up Poland won bronze medal defeating defending champions Spain 29-28 in extra time at the 24th Men’s Handball World Championship yesterday.
The teams were tied 24-24 after the stipulated 60 minutes at Lusail Multipurpose Hall.
“I am happy for my team. I didn’t want to see my players going home without medals. We proved that this team can fight back. We have done a good job,” Poland coach Michael Biegler said.
Spain’s coach Manuel Cadenas gave credit to Poland for playing better at crucial times.
“The Poland team was better in extra time. We had our opportunities but didn’t use them to achieve victory. Our defence was very bad as we let Poland score in the last seconds,” he said.
Both teams had scoring problems at the beginning of the match, but Poland were the first team to strike and went up 3-0 within five minutes forcing Cadenas to call an early time-out.
The Polish defence and goalkeeper Slawomir Szmal continued to do very well, though, and it took Spain seven minutes and 11 seconds to score their first goal, as Albert Rocas reduced the margin to 3-1 on a counter-attack.
However, Poland continued to dominate, much to the joy of their many fans in the hall, and increased their lead to 7-3.
A more offensive Spanish defence and an improved performance by Gonzalo Perez de Varga in the goal brought Spain back into the game, and after 22 minutes left back Antonio Garcia equalised with 11-11.
A first half with a relatively large number of technical mistakes on both sides also ended on level terms, as the score read 13-13 after the first 30 minutes.
This Spaniards broke the tie in the first minute of the second half, though, as their huge line player Julen Aguinagalde gave them their first lead of the match at 14-13.
Spain continued to have a one-goal lead, right up until right wing Victor Tomas made use of a counter-attack to put them ahead at 19-17 12 minutes into the second-half.
Tomas gave Spain a three-goal lead at 21-18 with less than 14 minutes left in the game, which forced Biegler to call his last time-out.
Poland managed to come back from a four goal deficit and draw 24-24 before winning by one goal after two five-minute sessions of extra time
“All the players were fantastic today. We had been mentally prepared for this match, despite losing in the semifinal. It was difficult to maintain focus, but I am proud of how we did,” Poland’s Michal Daszek said.
“We didn’t expect such a good result especially after our preliminary round. We had a tough schedule - Sweden and Croatia on our way to the semis. That makes this result even bigger.”
Talking about the 2016 European championship in Poland, he said: “This is the best preparation for our home tournament. I hope that we can win gold medal in front of home fans.”
Poland’s Michal Szyba, who scored eight goals, said, “It’s like a dream for me. It’s like a dream for all of our team. This game was the best game in my career. We believed we could win the bronze medal and we did it.”
Victor Tomas scored seven goals for Spain.

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