By Kevin Domas

To say that Spain are returning back from the dead would be a real understatement. Yesterday, they had to win a proper quarter-final against Germany to make it to the knock-out phase at the EHF EURO 2018, while an easier (at least on paper) win against Slovenia could have sealed the deal a day earlier.

“To be here is a real surprise for us. We lost some games, against Denmark and Slovenia, but still – here we are. It’s unbelievable.” says an enthusiastic Eduardo Gurbindo.

The right back agrees that his team lacked consistency throughout the tournament, always delivering a poor performance after showing their best side a game earlier. Maybe that’s consistent with a team including a number of youngsters. But, Spain have fulfilled their goal, at least.

“We wanted to be here in Zagreb, and now we don’t want to stop. Even though the semifinal was the initial objective, we want a medal,” Gurbindo carries on.

And it’s easey to understand why he doesn’t want to go home empty handed. Along with fellow right-hand, David Balaguer, he shares his regular working days with four players currently on the French team – Nicolas Tournat, Nicolas Claire, Cyril Dumoulin and Romain Lagarde will compete against them in the semifinal, in what looks like a very special game.

“And I don’t want to go home without a medal.

“I can’t think about going home after being defeated. It’s an additional motivation to beat France, but we also know that it’ll be very tough,” says Gurbindo who arrived in France in the summer 2016.

Spain has traveled to Zagreb as a team with nothing to lose.

“France are the clear favorite, they’ve won everything so far, and they haven’t lost a game since the beginning of this EURO,” agrees Gurbindo, who was among the players who played in the EURO final two years ago.

“We are going to play our game and do what we did since the beginning (of the competition ed.) – show a strong defense, and cause a lot of turnovers.

“We won’t invent anything new when we practice tonight.” he laughs.