Spain strike back against the Netherlands

Spain have struck back in the opening match of the fourth round of the Women’s EHF EURO Qualification against the Netherlands.

After a ten-goal setback in the first leg (21:31), the EHF EURO 2014 silver medallists took revenge with a 32:29 win on Saturday - but missed a clearer result after being ahead by ten goals intermittently.

Both sides are equally topping Group 3 with six points each and clearly remain on the road to Sweden 2016.

GROUP 3: Spain vs. Netherlands 32:29 (20:11)

Like in the EHF EURO 2014 Qualification two years ago (22:27, 29:22), Spain managed to take revenge on home ground against the Netherlands.

After their 21:31 demolition on Wednesday in the away match, the team of Jorge Duenas turned the tide against the World Championship silver medallists who showed a rather lacklustre performance for in the first half.

After only eight minutes, the EHF EURO 2014 runners-up were ahead already 7:3, as the Netherlands could not get through the extremely solid Spanish defence.

Taking advantage from the turnovers and the huge number of saves of goalkeeper Silvia Navarro, the hosts even forged ahead to a never expected 20:11 half-time lead, including six goals of their top striker, Alexandrina Barbosa.

It took Spain only three minutes after the break to gain their first double-figured lead at 21:11, while the Dutch side were truly shaken.

Though now Marta Mangue was on fire, Netherlands managed to rise up again and to reduce the gap to only seven goals at 20:27 in the middle of the second half.

Thanks to a 6:1 series, finished by a spectacular shot of Lois Abbingh, the away team even got closer to only 24:28 as Spain had only scored six times in 18 minutes against Dutch goalkeeper Tess Wester.

Two minutes before the final buzzer, the Dutch side were trailing 28:31 but their chase came too late to turn the match around.

Now the Dutch focus will be on the Olympic Qualification Tournament next week in France where they face the hosts, Tunisia and Japan for two tickets to Rio 2016.

As Spain are already qualified, they take the chance to test against Norway, Brazil and Germany in Norway next weekend.