Brazil qualifies for the second phase of the women's handball World Cup

The women's handball team ends this Monday (6) the participation in the first part of the World Championship of the modality, held in Spain. From 2 pm (GMT), the Brazilians will face Paraguay in the Cidade de Castellón pavilion, for the last round of Group G.

World champion in 2013, the team is guaranteed in the second phase, after winning the two games they played so far. The last one on Saturday (4): 29 to 25 over Japan. In the debut, the triumph was against Croatia, by 30 to 25.

In the next phase, the Brazilians will be in Group 4, again with Japan and Croatia (also already classified, but who will not return to Brazil) and will face the three best placed in Group H, which brings together China, Argentina, Austria and the hostess Spain.

The selection takes with it the four points added with the victories over Croatian and Japanese . Only two teams, among the six in the new bracket, advance to the quarter-finals.

Against the Japanese, the Brazilians found it more difficult to finish than in their debut. The selection went to the interval with 52% use in kicks. Against Croatia, the team was always above 60% and ended the match at around 70%.

Despite Ana Paula Belo having hit the net four times, goalkeeper Sakura Kametani worked hard and helped the eastern team to stay two to three goals ahead. At the end of the first 30 minutes, Japan was winning by 15 to 12.

The game was another one in the second half. The exclusion of Yumi Kitahara for two minutes, after an infraction, made Japan give up the goalkeeper to continue with six players in line and ended up being decisive.

Brazil shook the nets in sequence and went ahead for good. The use of kicks (considering the whole game) rose to 64% and the Brazilians hit the five seven-meter shots (equivalent to the handball penalty) they had. Japan wasted two opportunities like that.

Adriana Doce was the top scorer of the match, with seven goals, followed by Tamires Araújo, who scored six times. Goalkeeper Renata Arruda, who replaced Babi Arenhart on his return from half-time, also stood out. In addition to important saves, preventing the Japanese reaction, she herself scored one of the Brazilian goals in the game.

Eliminated in the first phase of the women's tournament at the Tokyo Olympiad (Japan), Brazil competes for the renewed World Cup, with only two remnants of the world title in 2013: Babi and Ana Paula. The coach is Cristiano Rocha, a former assistant to the Spaniard Jorge Dueñas, the national coach for the past three years and who was fired after the Games.

Text translated using artificial intelligence.