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Spain erase shaky start to clinch win in opener against Chile

16 Jan. 2025

Spain erase shaky start to clinch win in opener against Chile

After a slow start of their 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, where they conceded 10 goals in the first 11 minutes, Spain improved their performance and conceded only 12 goals in the ensuing 49 minutes, to secure a 31:22 win over Chile in Thursday’s first match in the Unity Arena in Baerum, Oslo.

GROUP F
Spain vs Chile 31:22 (17:13)

Spain had previously finished on the podium, sealing the bronze medal, in each of the last two editions of the IHF Men’s World Championship, but the feeling was that Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025 was going to be a new start for “Los Hispanos”, which traditionally were one of the teams with the biggest age average.

Things have changed for Spain, with four members of the generation which secured the gold medal at the 2023 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship 17 months ago in the current senior squad, and with plenty of changes, the growing pains were always going to happen for Jordi Ribera’s side.

Indeed, the start of the match was rocky to say the least for the bronze medallist at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, with Chile scoring at free will, with 10 goals conceded by Spain in the first 11 minutes of the match. It was a strong wake-up call for Ribera’s team, but the experienced coach did not put too much pressure on his side, letting the match play out.

Chile were, indeed, superb in attack, with captain Rodrigo Salinas running the show, without scoring a goal in the first half, despite being his side’s top scorer at the IHF Men’s World Championship, with 241 goals. But Salinas engineered some fantastic passes, which left Spain dumbfounded, as the South American side took an unexpected 10:7 lead.

It was the moment when Spain realised that they were absolutely lacking composure in defence and started amping up the pressure, which caused more turnovers from Chile and, eventually, saw the South American side score only three goals in the last 19 minutes of the first half, enabling a Spain comeback.

Despite missing two penalties, left wing Dani Fernandez led the charge with five goals in the first half, as Spain finished the half with a 10:3 run, which saw them comfortably in the lead after 30 minutes, 17:13.

Chile’s attacking woes continued in the second half, as they recorded 16 turnovers by the 46th minute, with their shooting efficiency also dwindling to a 55% mark, as Spain were leading by nine goals at that time, 26:17, with only three outfield players failing to get on the scoresheet.

Chile managed to cut the lead to only six goals, but their lack of experience and depth at this level was their undoing, especially when Salinas and Feuchtmann started to become more and more tired, with Spain constantly changing their players, offering them some much-needed rest before the business end of the competition.

Eventually, Spain secured their third win in as many matches against Chile at the IHF Men’s World Championship, but this was by far their easiest encounter in Group F, with matches against Japan and Sweden following.

On the other hand, Chile will have to face the same two opponents, as they are aiming to avoid featuring in the President’s Cup for the first time in history, after making their maiden appearance in the competition in 2011.

hummel Player of the Match: Sergey Hernandez (Spain)