Barcelona is the first finalist of the EHF Final Four in Koln. In the until-last-seat filled Lanxess Arena they beat the “domestic” team of Rhein-Neckar Lowen on their way to the final. Barcelona showed a strong play, and even though the Mannheim team proved to be a good opponent, in the end they will to play for 3rd place tomorrow.
Barcelona went strong into the first half, taking a 4-0 lead in the beginning, the first goal from Noddesbo. Then Rhein-Neckar Lowen finally managed to score Olafur Stefansson, and from that point onward most of the first half went with a slight Barcelona advantage of 2-3 goals. Garcia, Tomas and Rutenka kept Barcelona going, while Zarko Sesum and Olafur Stenfassons were the main answers from Rhein-Neckar Lowen. In the end of the first half for the first half Rhein-Neckar Lowen managed to get a draw at 10-10, this being followed by an immediate response from Barcelona having 12-10 two minutes before the end. However, the failed to capitalize their final attacks, and Rhein-Neckar Lowen used this to equalize to 12-12, and this was the final score of the first half.
The second half started pretty even, with both teams playing goal-for-goal, and in the 36th minute Rhein-Neckar Lowen took the lead for the first time in this game, but it did not last long, as Barcelona fought back and in the 48th minute they made had a 3 goals lead, 23-20, after Bielecki missed some shots for RNL. Rhein-Neckar called a time-out after this, but Barcelona kept its good run, and made the lead up to 4 goals, 24-20. Then Barcelona made the game until the end just a formality, keeping a good distance of about 3 goals until the final whistle, with the 30-28 the final score.
The topscorer of the game was Andre Schmidt with 7 goals from Rhein-Neckar Lowen, while for Barcelona Rutenka and Garcia were the leaders with 5 goals each.
