Krisztián Manhercz, right back from Hungary, apologized with his hand: the gesture of tennis players when a ball hits the net and lands on the opponent's side. He had just scored the winning goal against Spain (12-11) in the World Cup semifinals, but he was hardly celebrating it. He was still surprised by what happened, awaiting the decision of the referees before the VAR screen.

In the last second of the game, a very difficult, desperate shot of his, without an angle, had slipped under Unai Aguirre's right arm and had decided the match.. It was a mistake by the Spanish goalkeeper. it was bad luck. In any case, it was the elimination of the team, which will have to seek qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in other events, in the next European or the next World Cup..

“The most important thing has been our defense in the last attacks. The shot was not well thought out, I saw that there was no time left, I shot and that's it”, declared Manhercz at the end of the game, already qualified for the final against Greece. The Hungarian downplayed his goal due to the participation of chance in it, but he was also partly right.

Spain let the victory be taken from them in the fourth quarter. He received up to five goals in that final set in which he was able to sentence time and time again and did not. With goals from Sergi Cabanas (8-10) and Blai Mallarach (9-11) they had a wide lead for several minutes and didn't take advantage of it.

It was the same blocking as in the quarterfinals against France, the same one that had been intuited at some moments in the group stage. Given the importance of 2024, the coach, David Martin, will have to solve this problem, although he will also have many points in favor.

Despite the slip on Thursday, Spain has shown in the Fukuoka World Cup that it is still on the heights after winning the previous World Cup, hanging a bronze in the last European Championship and dominating the most recent World Cup.