The home crowd looked on course to be celebrating when their team outscored their opponents 4-1 in the first period at the Tofurdo in Szombathely.

Spain stormed back by winning the second period 5-3 to leave themselves just one goal behind at half-time.

The turnaround was complete when Spain scored twice without reply in the third quarter of the match.

A closely fought match ended in thrilling fashion with both teams scoring four times in the final quarter, as Spain held on to clinch a 12-11 win at the host’s expense.

Spain are now set to face Greece in the gold medal match after they won their semi-final against Serbia.

The Serbian team edged the opening half as they led 5-4 at the break.

Similar to the opening semi-final, the match swung in the third quarter as Greece outscored their rivals 4-2 to take a narrow lead.

Both teams found the net on one occasion in the final quarter, which saw Greece celebrate a 9-8 success.

Greece and Spain will now meet for the title, while Hungary and Serbia will clash for bronze.