Spain beat Sweden 29-23 (12-14) and won the European Championship for the first time. Goalkeeper Arpad Sterbik becomes a match winner, but remains modest. And Gedeon Guardiola prophesies glaring days when even the king himself is not sure.
The award as a player of the game seemed to him to be a little bit uncomfortable, even during the award ceremony he didn’t want to be in the center of attention. Arpad Sterbik was the clear hero of the final in the Arena Zagreb.
The 38-year-old goalkeeper, who had only been re-nominated for the injured Gonzalo Perez de Vargas before the semi-final, arrived in the 24th minute. Rodrigo Corrales scored only three goals in the first 20 minutes of the second half. His percentage of balls held had meanwhile increased to 50 percent, and in the end it was 38 (8 parades out of 21 throws).
“His performance can be summed up in three letters: MVP,”wrote the AS. And the hall speaker yelled into the microphone:”Arpad Sterbik: From the living room to the throne of the European Championship.”
But the Serbian-born, originally from Hungary and Spanish nationality since 2008, did not want to know anything about the praise:”This was a great team effort. I am very happy to be part of this team,”said Vardar Skopje, the man from Macedonian top club Vardar Skopje, who is moving to Veszprem in Hungary this summer, modestly.
He was right, of course. After all, it was not Sterbik alone who drove the curse out of the final and finally brought Spain the first title in the fifth final of the European Championship. In the second half, the Iberians played an unbelievable 5-1 defence and found solutions against Sweden’s heavy cover in the first half.
“The switch to the 5-1 defence was decisive. The Spaniards did an outstanding job, they played with us, you could almost say. The second half was perfect for them,”Sweden’s left-winger Hampus Wanne admitted.
The Scandinavians completely collapsed. Spain, which had their best throwers in Ferran Sole and David Balaguer (both five goals), stormed away with a 13-3 run. The whole scenario aroused memories. The DHB team was also completely lost in the main round against Spain within a few minutes.
In any case, Spain is a deserved European champion. After finishing fourth in the European Championship 2012, third place in 2014 and silver in 2016, it finally worked out in Croatia.
“It’s an incredible feeling, it can hardly be described. We finished a great tournament and worked very hard for it. We’ve been through difficult moments. That’s the earned reward for the team’s hard work in the field and away from it,”said captain Raul Entrerrios.
Indeed, Spain did indeed have complicated moments during this tournament. Before the semi-final final against Germany, there was little in favour of the two-time world champion. Coach Jordi Ribera’s side, who lost to Denmark in the preliminary round, had a terrifying performance in the second game of the main round when they lost 26:31 against Slovenia.
Many hadn’t thought that the squad, which included numerous older players, would be able to find their way back to the road to success only 24 hours later. But it worked out impressively, and in the semi-finals France was eliminated.
“It was high time for many of us to win again with the national team,”said Sterbik with a wink, referring to the age of some players.
Gedeon Guardiola of the Rhine-Neckar Lions in the Mixed Zone said,”Now we’re going to drink a lot of beer,”the circuit runner announced:”Then we’ll fly to Madrid and continue our celebration – with the president or the king.”
The Swedes, on the other hand, were dejected. At the moment of the defeat, no one could be happy about the sensationally good result with second place.
“We fell into a trap in the second half. This offensive defence was too much for us,”said goalkeeper Mikael Appelgren. This time, the 28-year-old had gained the advantage over Andreas Palicka and made his case strong with 35 percent defended balls.
“This tournament has been a great experience for our team,” said Appelgren:”Right now we’re disappointed, but this silver medal will feel good in a few days.