Rugby (U-20): Portugal loses to Spain and title renewal
The national under-20 rugby team lost this Saturday to Spain 15-9 in the final of the European Championship in the category, which was played in Taveiro (Coimbra) and thus failed to regain the title, which would be the fourth in a row. not echelon.
In this way, the Spaniards recovered what they had escaped since 2015, before seeing the Portuguese team win three straight titles, starting in 2017, when the tournament began to be played annually.
In a game that ended with nerves on edge and one sending-off for each side, Matheo Triki and Tomás Cunha, Portugal ended up being penalized for that move, as the referee signaled a penalty in favor of Spain for the Portuguese player’s response to first assault.
Afterwards, Juan Buelga concluded an individual move by Alex Atorragasti and made the second test of the «Leones», after a second half in which neither team managed to make their game flow and threw themselves very close to the back of the defense.
Spain had even been a more undisciplined team in the first half, but remained in the discussion of the result by building one of the few mistakes made by Portugal to take a penalty, by Arnau Comes, and in a test after alignment five meters from the line, in a ball that capriciously left the sideline, right next to the pennant.
Even so, Portugal arrived at half-time winning by 9-8, thanks to the third penalty converted by Domingos Cabral, punishing a foul in the frontal zone that earned Hector Abad a yellow card in the first-half game.
But, at that time, they already felt that Portugal had enormous difficulties to put into practice their fast game, by hand, which turned out to be decisive for the outcome of the match.