France Stunned: Barrufet’s Late Goal Seals Spanish Handball Victory

Ian Barrufet had big shoes to fill with the Spanish national team. Father David Barrufet is a two-time world goalkeeper and 2005 World Cup winner – his son was named player of the match against France. The left winger showed an outstanding performance with 11 goals from 12 attempts. The 21-year-old received support from Jan Gurri, the backcourt player scored five times and prepared seven goals.

In the final phase, however, it was mainly goalkeeper Sergey Hernandez who once again delivered a strong game in Herning, Denmark (14 saves) and outplayed Remi Desbonnet, who also performed well, in the French goal. France’s superstar Dika Mem never found his way into the game and didn’t hit any of his four shots, so France was permanently behind. Only Aymeric Minne convinced with many good actions (7 goals / 4 assists), but also struggled with his missed throws (6).

Due to France’s defeat, the German team needs one point in the remaining games against Denmark and France to reach the semi-finals. Already after the draw between Portugal and Norway At midday it was clear that the DHB team had secured third place in the group and thus the game for fifth place. France is under considerable pressure in the final game against Germany if they want to defend their title this year.

Superstar Mem doesn’t even come into the game

It wasn’t the first half for France’s superstar Dika Mem. After the left-hander’s strong performance against Portugal, he didn’t hit any of his four throws against the previous bottom of the table in main round group II. Things went differently in the Spanish team, where several players started the game well. Playmaker Jan Gurri scored two important goals to make it 4-2 (7th), but shone above all as a provider (5 assists).

In a duo with the former MT Melsungen left winger Barrufet, who hit seven of his eight shots in the first half, Spain was able to surprisingly pull away early on. A 4-0 run by the Iberians made it 11:8 (18th), with France goalkeeper Charles Bolzinger clearly winning the duel with Sergey Hernandez in the opening minutes.

Hernandez slows down French comeback with saves

In addition to Mem, Aymeric Minne, who has been convincing so far, also fell short of expectations for the defending champion. The director was able to prepare three goals, but also failed three times due to Hernandez’s improving performance. With the half-time siren, Alex Dujshebaev made it 20:14, so France went into the break with a surprising six-goal deficit.

And coach Guillaume Gille’s team wanted to equalize that as quickly as possible; France came out of the break with a lot of speed. However, the Spanish goalkeeper Hernandez initially stood in the way of a real comeback too often. The Magdeburger held strong against Julien Bos and Barrufet continued his impressive performance before the break – 23:16 (37th) for Spain.

Offensive cover plays into the hands of fast Spaniards

It was almost forgotten that substitute Remi Desbonnet also played a great game after coming on. The 33-year-old stopped six of the first nine shots on goal and ensured that Spain could not pull away any further. On the contrary, the saves inspired his teammate, Thibaud Briet, to make it 25:26 (48th).

When they were outnumbered, the French put Spain under pressure with offensive defense, but the fast Iberians used the gaps that presented themselves to make some easy breakthroughs (28:25). The match winner was Barrufet with his goals nine and ten and when Hernandez was there against Minne and Yannis Lenne (55th), the surprising defeat for France was sealed.