EHF CL: Noddesbo saves Barca in Kielce

Vive Tauron Kielce were very close to taking a victory over Barcelona Lassa but in the end the teams shared points. The final result of the match in Kielce is 30:30.

Barcelona took the upper hand almost from the beginning; a bit poor defence of the hosts and a decent performance of Šarić allowed them to lead by four in less than ten minutes (8:4, 9. minute). Coach Duyshebaev decided to replace Šego with Szmal in the goal and few minutes later it turned out to be a brilliant idea as mostly thanks to his saves, the Polish team equalized at 11:11. However, Barcelona got back on the right track right away. Kielce had problems with breaking through their opponents’ defence. In the last seconds of the first half Kielce had their chance to reduce the gap to two points but Buntić made a mistake, the ball was given to Barcelona and they left the court with a halftime lead of three (17:14).

First minutes of the second half didn’t spelt any changes in the game but Vive managed to score four goals in a row and equalized at 19:19. Since that moment the game was very tight; Barcelona maintained one-goal edge. In 52. minute the Catalan team had a chance to gain a considerable – in this situation – advantage of three goals but Lazarov missed the goal with no goalkeeper in it and Kielce equalized again. Improved Polish defence made Barca lose the ball and for the first time since the second minute, Čupić got his team on the lead – 28:27; in a moment crowd went wild when Šego saved Lazarov’s penalty throw. With 40 seconds to go, Kielce were leading 30:28 and the final result seemed to be obvious. Right after the timeout for Barcelona, the referees gave the Catalan team a penalty throw and this time Lazarov wasn’t denied. With just 13 seconds to spare, Coach Duyshebaev called for a timeout. Kielce tried just to get through the last seconds but during on of the pass they lost the ball. Zorman received a red card for a foul that was supposed to prevent Barcelona players from passing the ball on.

There were two seconds left but after a great chaos near the scorer’s table, referees decided to turn back the clock to 4 seconds. Barcelona playing in a double powerplay and with a libero on the court, managed to pass the ball to Nøddesbo, who stood on the 6. meter, and he gave his team one point.

The top scorer for Kielce was Michał Jurecki with 7 goals; the top scorer for Barcelona was Kiril Lazarov with 7 goals either.

Vive Tauron Kielce – FC Barcelona Lassa 30:30 (14:17)

Vive: Szmal, Sego – Buntić 1, Jurecki 7, Tkaczyk 1, Jachlewski 4, Zorman 3, Bielecki 1, Lijewski 1, Strlek, Cupić 2, Aquinagalde 4/2, Chrapkowski 1, Reichmann 5, Kus.

Barcelona: Sarić, Moreno – Tomas 2, Nöddesbo 1, Entrerrios 5, Sarmiento 1, Sorhaindo 4, Gurbindo 5, Morros, Bengoechea, Jallouz 1, Lazarov 7/5, Sigirdsson 2, Kopljar 1, Syprzak, Jicha 1.

The second derby of the group have been played in Mannheim, where Rhein Neckar Lowen didn’t let surprise like in the previous season, when PICK Szeged beat them at TOP 16 clash. “Lions” won 30:25 (13:13) with seven goals of Andy Schmid. Slovenian playmaker Dean Bombač netted five for Hungarian vice-champions.

Montpellier beat IFK Kristianstad 30:26.

STANDINGS:

TEXT: MARTYNA USNARSKA