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The Spanish women opened the Gant EuroHockey Championships 2011 in the Warsteiner HockeyPark in Mönchengladbach with a commanding victory 4:0 (2:0) against Italy. Although the quality of play was somewhat less than impressive, the Spanish players cleverly took advantage of their opponents’ technical mistakes and deserved to win.
Both teams were particularly nervous as the game started. The flow of play was hindered by missed passes and technical mistakes by both teams. The first Spanish goal was the result of a major mistake by the Italian goalkeeper Roberta Lilliu, who stepped over a backward pass from her team colleague. The Spanish player Berta Bonastre had only to push the ball into the goal.
The leading team then had more chances, but it wasn’t until the 29th minute that Barbara Malda managed to raise the score to 2:0 after a crafty combination over the right side. The Italian players failed to put pressure on the Spaniards. Their only goal chance worth mentioning was a seven-metre attempt in the 17th minute, when Maria Lopez de Equilaz in the Spanish goal saved the shot from Francesca Faustini.
Neither of the teams was convincing in the second half. Spain protected their lead and the Italians were not able to score a goal. After the final whistle the Spanish trainer Alejo Noblom explained their weak performance in the game: “It was a difficult game because the first match is always the hardest.” The 3:0 resulted from a standard situation. Silvia Munoz took advantage of a penalty corner to score her first goal in Mönchengladbach.
Just one minute later Barbara Malda completed the scoring in the opening game. In spite of the weak performance of his players, the Italian trainer Giovanni Admo Rossi was optimistic about the future. “We’ll take each game as it comes, and at the end we’ll see what the group results are”, he said explaining his strategy for the next days.
Goals:
1:0 Berta Bonastre (4.)
2:0 Barbara Malda (30.)
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3:0 Silvia Munoz (KE, 58.)
4:0 Barbara Malda (59.)
Penalty corners:
ESP 5 (1 Tor) / ITA 2 (-)
Green cards:
Marta Prat (63.) / Alessia Padalino (45.)
Umpires:
Ashton-Lucy / Meister
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