The first finalist of the sixth VELUX EHF FINAL4 tournament in Cologne is Spanish FC Barcelona! The most successful team in the handball history beat Polish champions Vive Tauron Kielce 33:28 (16:14) in the first semi-final of the major club’s event in front of 20.000 fans in Lanxess Arena. Xavi Pascual boys broke the resistance of the Poles in the last 10 minutes with amazing performance of their goalkeeper Danijel Šarić, who saved 10 balls in the last 20 minutes of the clash. Nikola Karabatic scored 8 goals, Kiril Lazarov overtook the goalscorer’s crown from Mikkel Hansen (106 – 104) with 7, while Karol Bielecki netted six for the „yellow“ squad who will fight for the third place on Sunday (15.15).
Barca showed winning ambitions in the first 15 minutes of the match, after which Talant Dujshebaev was forced to call time-out (8:4). Barca’s counter attack was outstanding and made a lot of troubles to the Kielce’s planned attack-defense substitutions.
The leader was Nikola Karabatić who netted his third for 10:6 in 20th minute.
However, as Dujshebaev promised, his player fought well and didn’t have problem with selfconfidence against the favorite. The Spanish coach re-organized his attack, Julen Aguinagalde was the biggest threat for Barca’s goal, but also outstanding shooter Karol Bielecki who ended 3:0 series of his team for 10:9 after 23 minutes of the clash.
Barcelona didn’t let the rivals to catch them until half-time break. Main role in the last few minutes of the first half had Jesper Noddesbo with two goals for 16:14.
„Run and gun“ game continued after the break. Barca opened the second half-time with 3:0 for +5 (19:14), but Kielce’s had quick answer, few counter-attacks which put team from „Blaugrana“ under pressure – 19:18.
Xavi Pascual called time-out, but that didn’t prevent the first tie – 20:20 in 38th minute after fast-break by Manuel Štrlek.
The Polish champions were in the game in the next ten minutes, when the individual quality of Danijel Šarić became dominant. The Qatari NT goalie replaced Vargas in 40th minute, and saved 10 shots until the final buzzer.
Kielce had only chance to take advantage in 45th minute, but Šarić caught two balls from Cupic and Jurecki.
Barca’s goalie became almost unbeatable in the last ten minutes providing his team many chance to make final touch. Karabatic, Lazarov and Sarmiento scored for 3:0 series which put Barca three goals ahead – 29:26 eight minutes to go.
Kielce scored only two goals for the last 12 minutes, there were no chance for turnover until the end…
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