The dream of the third European gold dies on the shore and with controversy

It could not be and Spain fell with much controversy in the European final against Sweden 26-27 with a very controversial arbitration decision that gave way to the last action settled with a penalty from Niclas Ekberg with the clock at zero.

And it is that with 26-26 the champions in 2018 and in 2020 attacked to win the match. Jordi Ribera asked for time and Joan Cañellas may have jumped the gun, but she received a cheeky push from Jim Gottfridsson that the German referees did not want to see.

Against the rival against whom they won gold four years ago, the Hispanics reached the final after an epic victory in the quarterfinals against Denmark (29-25)while the Scandinavians had left Olympic champion France by the wayside in an agonizing end to extra time (33-34).

The new MVP of the tournament, Jim Gottfridssonset the pace of the match in the opening moments and led a good Swedish start, taking advantage of the fact that Spain was struggling to find gaps in attack (3-1, min. 3:44).

In those difficult moments the future Barça player Hampus Wanne missed two penalties against Rodrigo Corralesalthough the great success of Andreas Palicka in the other goal allowed Glenn Solberg’s men to maintain that advantage past the halfway point of the first half (8-6).

There began to bear fruit the magnificent work of Aitor Ariño as advanced in the defensive 5-1, which together with the sensational irruption of Ian Tarrafeta from Sabadell allowed the champions of the two previous editions balance the contest with a great goal from Ángel Fernández (11-11, min. 27:30).

After spinning very fine to exclude Sánchez-Migallón, the referees did not see a flagrant foul on Edu Gurbindo (and possible exclusion). Despite this, with goals from Adrià Figueras and Aleix Gómez after surprising in the center kick the Spaniards went ahead to the changing rooms (12-13).

Spain came back very involved in the game, with Ian Tarrafeta taking full advantage of the percussion work of Joan Cañellas to score his fourth goal without fail (14-16). The problem is that in the other goal the defense sank in excess Y the swedes took advantage in one against one (18-18, min. 39:42).

There, a human error in the defense-attack changes led to Iñaki Peciña’s second suspension 19 minutes from the end and it was already the second. The point is that Daniel Pettersson scored on an empty goal and turned the score around (20-19) for the first time since 11-10.

The Hispanics were not having any luck in multiple actions in which they did not recover by millimeters or in a couple of rejections. And it was hard for them to stop Gottfridsson’s symphony again… but were still alive when the coach Jordi Ribera he stopped the game with 12 minutes to go (22-21).

The dynamics were not favorable and the Scandinavian minimum advantages and draws followed one another until a couple of errors in attack gave way to a 25-23 play by Wanne which greatly complicated the options in the absence of seven minutes.

There emerged the defensive claw that has made this team great with two recoveries and two goals from a colossal Adrià Figueras and Cañellas. And Spain attacked to win, but the German referees played the Swedes in a flagrant foul by Gottfridsson on the former Kiel and Ekberg gave the gold to the Scandinavians with a penalty and without time. Shameful decision for a superb final.