European handball. In the vertigo of the set-up, Portugal lost by four goals in their debut against Iceland
The scintillating duels, mainly due to the resistance of the Icelanders in the 1×1, guided Portugal’s debut in the European Championship, in Hungary and Slovakia. Despite the good moments in handball, mainly influenced by the special Rui Silva, the Portuguese started the fight with a defeat by four goals (24-28).
Portugal entered with Gustavo Capdeville, Diogo Branquinho, Alexandre Cavalcanti, Rui Silva, Fábio Magalhães, António Areia and Victor Iturriza. The first meter the ball in Iceland’s goal was Sand. Then, for the inaugural defensive transition, Gilberto Duarte replaced Rui Silva, which we discovered improvised angles, especially for the pivots, always with a bunch of people breathing on the back of their necks and almost relentless caresses. .
The game started with a lot of fouls, an ada that would continue, exclusions in a cascade, a trend that would be stagnated in the second half. Both teams would end up rehearsing without a goalkeeper.
On the other side there were, of course, people very competent in the art of playing handball. Aron Pálmarsson, who scored the first points for Iceland, was considered the best athlete in that country. In goal was the experienced 36-year-old Björgvin Páll Gústavsson, who filled the Portuguese rival’s goal in an important phase of the first half. The clashes, the clashes and the excesses, at least from the point of view of damage, followed one another. It’s a tough sport. Gustavo Capdeville was replying to Gústavsson.
At 18′, the Portuguese coach asked for time. He wanted a few adjustments in the defense, one of them because Bjarki Mar Elisson, the boy with the ribbon in his hair that appeared on the left wing, had poison to sell. In the attack, Paulo Jorge Pereira called for the “delta” solution.
The break came with a lack of four goals for Portugal, a result that punished correctly in the finalization. Despite the serenity in the attack, based on the bold and rigorous ideas of Rui Silva – the team made, in the first 30′, 460 passes against 291 of the Icelanders (58% in possession of the ball) –, the Portuguese did not give the best follow-up to some attacks that promised more joy than they actually sang.
The progressive entries, in agile and bold gestures, were massacring the Portuguese defense. That’s why, in the next time-out, the team signaled an attacker on the other side and asked for help again. “Don’t pass the ball to anyone. Help, help! We played 2×1 against the guy”, was stoking the athletes. By this time, Portugal would lose by six goals.
One of the beautiful things about this sport, something a little transversal to all the others, is the many times, synchronized actions of the game pieces. The movement, the pass, another movement that creates doubt, the winger’s run that has to start at the right time, the jump, the release of the ball, in short. And as threads? The threads, gentlemen. Spiral art.
At the start of the last 15 minutes, Iceland already carved an important lead of six goals. There was some resignation on their faces, it looked like an endless mountain to climb. At this stage, Elisson, the left winger who wore the ribbon in his hair, was joining the pivot, in a distraction maneuver. Portugal is denouncing problems to stop the onslaught of the onslaught, particularly as such penetrations by lone wolves.
Attacks against the Portuguese were investing in attacks with superiority, without a goalkeeper, in defense the strategy was changed, an athlete further away from the wall, thus trying to fight the 1×1 bids that were killing the national team. There was an approach on the scoreboard, Iceland did not fall, they decided with more quality for the game Portugal fugaz da bulha.
After 60′, Portugal fell to Iceland, by 24-28 (Iturriza and Rui Silva scored four goals each, they were the most refined of the national team). The Portuguese, with problems in the call-up due to covid-19, make their debut, in Budapest, with a defeat in the European Championship, organized by Hungary and Slovakia. In the same group, the countries started to present themselves with a surprising nation, against Hungary (31h-28), the next next to Portugal (17h).