Barcelona is the first finalist!

FC Barcelona is the finalist number one of the first ever EHF FINAL4! The Catalans beat the Russian champions Medvedi Chekhov in the first semi-final with 34:27 (17:11) and reached the tenth EHF Champions League in their club history. 20,000 spectators saw a real highlight game with many spectacular goals and a well deserved victory for Barcelona. Topscorers were Juanin Garcia (8 for Barca) and Vasily Filippov (7 for Chekhov).

Barcelona dominated the first half clearly. As Chekhov played with power only, the Catalans impressed with an outstanding easiness. Especially the left attacking side played highly effective. Left winger Juanin Garcia, who scored four of his in total 8 goals before the break, overran the Chekhov defense.

The biggest advantage for Barcelona was their abundance of good quality players on the bench. The Chekhov defense - including goalkeeper Oleg Grams - was mostly working well, but they made mistakes at the wing positions and against the Barca line players. Siarhei Rutenka showed his individual class for the Catalans, on the other hand Fillipov was the key player for the Russians. Another key factor was Barca goalkeeper Danijel Saric who saved two penalties before the break.

After the 4:1 (minute 6) Barcelona managed to increase the distance, even as Chekhov could intermediately reduce to 7:10. But in the final stage of the first half Barca rocked the Russians again and built their qualification to the final upon the 17:11 halftime result.

In the beginning of the second half the main actors remained the same, but Barca lost their dominance: keeper Grams showed some spectacular saves, Fillipov scored – and suddenly the Catalans lost their rhythm, missed some chances and the score was 17:20 (40.) and 20:22 (42.).

The spectators were impressed by a real Chekhov handball show with outstanding combinations and trick goals. The Russians were close to turn the game – but then three offense mistakes made them lose their good position, as Barca punished them with three goals. The result was a five-goal-lead in minute 46 and Chekhov coach Vladimir Maximov had to take his time-out card. And even as the Russians scored some more outstanding goals, they couldn’t close the gap anymore. Four minutes before the end and the score of 31:26 Barca legendary goalkeeper David Barufet replaced Saric – to the fans were singing “Final, final”. Their opponent will be dcided in semi-final 2 that starts at 18:00 hrs.