Handball: under renovation, Brazil starts with victory at the women's Worlds
The women's handball team debuted with victory at the World Championship of the modality, held in Spain. This Thursday (2), the Brazilians beat Croatia by 30 to 25, at the Cidade de Castellón pavilion, for the first round of Group G.
Brazil returns to play this Saturday (4), at 4:30 pm (GMT), against Japan. A new victory guarantees early classification for the sequence of the competition. Participation in the first phase ends on Monday (6), against Paraguay. The matches will also be held in Castellón. The top three in the bracket will go to the next stage, where they will face the three best-placed rivals from Group H, which includes Argentina, China, Austria and hosts Spain.
Eliminated in the first phase of the women's tournament at the Tokyo Olympics (Japan), the Brazilian team went to the Worlds renewed, with only two remnants of the world champion group in 2013, in Serbia: goalkeeper Babi Arenhart and central Ana Paula Belo. Duda Amorim, voted the best player in the world in the past decade by the website Handball Planet , announced her retirement from the national team in October . Spanish coach Jorge Dueñas, who ran Brazil for three years and was fired after the Games, was replaced by Cristiano Rocha, an assistant to Dueñas himself.
In the duel against the bronze medalists of the last European Championship, the Brazilian ones were more efficient, with 71% of correct shots and 75% in the attempts by the wings. They also had an inspired performance by Babi, responsible for the low performance of the Croatians (51%) in shots close to the goal, especially in the second half, when they scored five successive saves.
After going into the break with 18 to 12 on the scoreboard, Brazil managed for almost ten minutes an advantage that reached nine goals. The Europeans managed to reduce the loss to five goals, but without threatening the green and yellow triumph. The Brazilian top scorer was Bruna de Paula, with seven goals. Ana Paula, Larissa Araújo (both four goals), Patrícia Matieli, Giulia Guarieiro, Adriana Cardoso, Tamires Araújo (all with three goals), Samara Vieira (two goals) and Jéssica Quintino (one goal) also scored.
Text translated using artificial intelligence.
