Spain beat France in the water polo consolation final at the Doha World Cup (14-10). The bronze obtained is the team’s eighth medal since 2018 and the tenth for the Spanish delegation at the Qatar Championship. National team coach David Martín said ‘the last game’ of a competition is always the most important and Spain pulled out all the stops, facing a rival who has improved a lot in recent times , since he discovered that he was going to organize the Games in the summer of 2024. And this World Cup has taken the plunge. They upset world champions Hungary in the quarter-finals and took Croatia to the semi-finals on penalties. Spain was warned and didn’t leave an inch of surprise.
It was difficult for Spain to get into action, but as soon as they did, they completely dominated the match. The match did not move in the first three minutes, with continued errors in precision and prominence from the goalkeepers, especially Unai Aguirre. The defense of David Martín’s team was of a high level, but the attack was very thick. It was Bernat Sanahuja who opened the scoring, even though Spain had taken more than three minutes. Bjorch equalized, in a superiority action (1-1), and from then on we saw the best version of the Spaniard. Alberto Munárriz, with a superb shot, made it 2-1; The Navarrese served 3-1 to De Toro. A penalty converted by Felipe Perrone, after a very tight counterattack, brings the score to 4-1. But the French reacted in the second quarter. Bouet took advantage of a superiority game (4-2), Álvaro Granados did not fail from the penalty spot (5-2), a missile from Vanpeperstraete brought the score to 5-3 and Famera did not fail in superiority (6-3).
In the second quarter, Perrone stood out above everyone else. The Spanish captain headed and scored. He ordered and gave the necessary pause and acceleration to the match to put the bronze medal very close to his team. He made it 7-3 at the end of a counter-attack and, although Zivkovic scored (7-4), two more goals made it 9-4. Perrone and Sanahuja, with separate shots, further distanced a Spanish team on the scoreboard which, at halftime, had already done a good part of the work. The 10-4 score was a marvel of precision and resolution: from Unai Aguirre’s counter-attacking pass to Álvaro Granados to the resolve of the scorer, who faked Fontani three or four times to score a goal fantastic. He was not the only one, because with 10-5, Granados distinguished himself in another high-class counterattack (11-5). The last quarter was 11-6 and during the last exchange, the French scored, but without ever causing concern (14-10).
Spain won another medal in this World Cup. Since 2018, the team has never left the podium. Eight medals: 2 gold (world and European), three silver (1 world, 2 European) and 3 bronze (2 world and one European). This legendary team is missing a medal, the most desired, the Olympic one.
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