Portugal beats the United States 39-27 in preparation for the Handball World Cup – Observer
The Portuguese handball team beat the United States this Saturday by an expressive 39-27, their first triumph in the 2023 Gjensidige Cup tournament, as part of their participation in the World Cup, which starts Wednesday in Sweden and Poland.
After the desire for 38-27, in the debut, in Trondheim, against the hosts Norway, runner-up in the world in 2019 and 2017, Paulo Pereira’s pupils have now surpassed another of the participants of the world cup, which will compete in Group G along with Egypt, Croatia and Morocco.
With goalkeeper Manuel Gaspar in the spotlight, the Portuguese team stood out early and after 15 minutes they were already winning by seven goals, at 11-4, with Pedro Portela and Diogo Branquinho standing out, with three goals each.
The advantage reached nine goals (16-7), however at half-time it was seven, stabilized at 19-12: with a 3-0 partial opening, supremacy reached double digits (10 goals), at 22-12 .
With all the players participating in the match, the quality of the match suffered a little with so many exchanges, but always with the Portuguese in control, with Pedro Portela standing out at the end as the top scorer, with seven goals.
Manuel Gaspar, Diogo Branquinho, André Gomes, Rui Silva, Diogo Silva, Pedro Portela and Victor Iturriza made up the starting seven.
On Sunday, Portugal ends its participation, facing Brazil, which is part of the ‘poule’ C of the world together with Sweden, Cape Verde and Uruguay.
Portugal, which is part of Group D, facing Iceland (Thursday), South Korea (Saturday) and Hungary (January 16), will compete for the fifth time in the Handball World Cup, after appearances in 1997, 2001, 2003 , as host, and 2021.