Spanish handball captain Entrerrios looking to retire on a high

MADRID, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Spain's men's handball team travels to the Tokyo Olympic Games looking to make up for lost time after failing to qualify for Rio in 2016.

That disappointment spurred an improvement in the team, which travels to Japan after winning two European titles and taking bronze in the World Championships in Egypt at the start of the year.

"Our first aim is to fight for medals, but it's a long road and we need to start well," said Spain captain Raul Entrerrios before the team flew to Japan.

Entrerrios explained that being able to take a squad of 16 players to the Olympics would be an advantage. "The more players you can have to form the team always has to be viewed positively. We are a team that likes to rotate a lot during games and after working with 16 players in qualification, it's positive we can continue with that number of players."

"We will try to go as far as possible in the competition, always being clear about what has brought us here and the difficulty we will face from the first day," added the player, who has announced he will retire after the Olympics to join the coaching staff at his club, Barcelona.

"This is my last competition as a professional player and it is an opportunity to end my playing days in a very special way," confirmed Entrerros.

Spain face a difficult group alongside Norway, France, Germany, Brazil and Argentina.

"It's a very demanding group, but I have always said that we have to set ourselves the goal of at least getting to the semifinals," commented Entrerrios' teammate Viran Morros.

"We did well to qualify for Tokyo. The team have been working really hard and apart from our narrow defeat against Portugal (on July 8th) we've been very competitive," commented the 37-year-old.