Poland have taken the bronze medal at the World Men's Handball Championship by defeating Spain 29:28 after extra time at Lusail, with the match ending 24:24 after 60 minutes, beIN SPORTS reported on Sunday.
Both teams had scoring problems at the beginning of the match, but Poland were the first team to solve them and went up 3:0 after the first five and a half minutes causing Spain's coach Manuel Cadenas to call a time-out.
The Polish defense and goalkeeper Slawomir Szmal continued to do very well.
It took Spain seven minutes and 11 seconds to score their first goal, as Albert Rocas reduced the deficit to 3:1 on a counter attack.
However, Poland continued to dominate, much to the joy of their many fans in the hall, and increased their lead to 5:1, 6:2 and 7:3.
A more offensive Spanish defense and an improved performance by Gonzalo Perez de Varga in the Spanish goal brought Spain into the game, and after 22 and a half minutes left back Antonio Garcia equalised with 11:11.
This was as far as the Spaniards got in the first half, never managing to take the lead.
A first half with a relatively large number of technical mistakes on both sides also ended equal, as the score read 13:13 after the first 30 minutes.
This Spaniards broke the tie in the first minute of the second half, though, as their huge line player Julen Aguinagalde gave them their first lead in the match at 14:13.
Spain continued to have a one goal lead, right up until right wing Victor Tomas made use of a counter attack to put them two up at 19:17 12 minutes into the second half.
It was also Tomas who gave Spain a three-goal lead at 21:18 with less than 14 minutes left, which forced Poland's coach Michael Biegler to call his last time-out.
This helped, as Poland managed to come back from a four goal deficit and draw 24:24 before winning by one goal after two times five minutes of extra time
Michal Szyba scored eight goals for Poland and Victor Tomas seven for Spain.
Source: MENA