Since the first edition of the Men’s European Championship held in 1994 in Portugal, Only Sweden has achieved the feat of climbing to the top of the podium three times in a row And now Hispanics are in a position to match that huge milestone.
It was in Italy ’98 (25-23 precisely against Spain), two years later in Croatia (32-31 against Russia in extra time) and in 2002 as the host (33-31 against Germany). That ‘Blagult’ team (blue and yellow) went down in history led among others by the great Magnus Wislander, Stefan Lövgren, Staffan Olsson and the current second Barça coach Tomas Svensson.
Since that third wound followed by the Scandinavians (the fourth in five editions), No team has managed to repeat until Spain reigned under the hand of Jordi Ribera four years ago in Croatia (29-23 in the final against Sweden) and in 2020 after knocking out Croatia 22-20 in a final played in Stockholm (co-organized by Sweden, Austria and Norway).
Well, the Spanish team has started this Sunday its first mini-concentration for the European that will take place in the Netherlands between January 13 and 30.
This appointment with 18 players including the Catalans Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas, Aitor Ariño, Aleix Gómez and Ángel Fernández It will take place at the CSD facilities in Madrid until this Thursday so that players can enjoy New Year’s Eve with their families before leaving for the whole month.
They are the important loss due to injury of one of the team’s referents such as Alex Dujshebaev and in the first big date without the mythical and retired former captain Raúl Entrerríos, Hispanics have been framed in a Group E whose headquarters will be Bratislava capital of Slovakia on their return to the competition after the bronze in Tokyo.
Spain will begin the defense of the title on January 13 against the Czech Republic at 6:00 p.m., two days later they will meet Sweden at 8:30 p.m. and on January 17, with Bosnia and Herzegovina (8:30 p.m.).
Sergey Hernández, novelty
The RFEBM announced a change in a list of 18 from which the goalkeeper Rodrigo Corrales (Veszprém) and his place is occupied by Sergey Hernández, who is making a great campaign in the ranks of the Portuguese Benfica.
In addition to the aforementioned Barça players Pérez de Vargas, Aleix Gómez, Ariño and Ángel FernándezCompleting the call are the centrals Ian Tarrafeta (PAUC) and Agustín Casado (Logroño), the right backs Jorge Maqueda (Veszprém) and Edu Gurbindo (Dinamo Bucuresti); the left wingers Antonio García, Chema Márquez (both from Granollers) and Joan Cañellas (Kadetten); the right wingers Ferran Solé (PSG) and Kauldi Odriozola (Bidasoa); defender Miguel Sánchez-Migallón (Kielce) and pivots Adrià Figueras (Chartres), Gdeón Guardiola (Lemgo) and Iñaki Peciña (PAUC).