Portugal seal win against Spain in friendly match

The winners of the inaugural World & European Wheelchair Handball Championship, Portugal, have been finetuning their preparations over the last few weeks, everything culminating with a friendly match against Spain, the fifth-placed side at the tournament played in Leiria last November.

Portugal dominated the game throughout both halves, taking an early 9:6 lead at the break and extending their excellent run of form with an 18:14 win, as Spain improved their performance in the second half, scoring more goals than in the first part of the match, but failing to stop the excellent Portugal attack.

The MVP of the 2022 World & European Wheelchair Handball Championship, Portugal's Ricardo Pereira, was also the top scorer of this friendly match, which was played in Spain at the Mariano Haro de Palencia. Pereira scored nine of Portugal's 18 points, while Spain's top scorers were Oscar Perales with six points and Lorenzo Envo with four points. Envo made his debut for the Spain national wheelchair handball team, transitioning from basketball, and has been praised for his game by coach Ricardo Alonso.

"We weren't together for some time. We went back to training and reviving all the work we had done before, getting back to our dynamics – it's a short time, and we have to work harder. Spain is improving, adding value to their team and creating quite a lot of problems for us," said Portugal's coach, Danilo Ferreira, according to the official website of the Portuguese Handball Federation.

"We were always leading, we were controlling the game, and little by little, we were gaining an advantage. We managed to win the game, which was what we wanted: to play a friendly game with Spain and try to help Spain to boost wheelchair handball in the country. These were the objectives achieved. In addition, we integrated the new athletes well; they gave us the response we wanted," added Ferreira.

On the other hand, Spain, which finished fifth at the 2022 World & European Wheelchair Handball Championship, are aiming to become better and better in wheelchair handball, hence this friendly game against Portugal.

The two sides will face each other once again in the "Euro Hand 4 All" tournament in Lyon, France, on 23 and 24 June, where Portugal and Spain will be joined by Belgium, Croatia, Norway and hosts France in an excellent tournament for wheelchair handball.

"We were competitive against Portugal, have started the game really well and put some problems. We adjusted in the second half, and we only lost by one point there, so it is a plus. We are very ambitious, and we will try to get better and better and get some good results in Lyon," said Ricardo Alonso, Spain's coach, according to the official website of the Spanish Handball Federation.

Photo: RFEBM