Barcelona win first trophy of season

Barcelona Intersport won the first major trophy of the new season. In the never-ending tug-of-war of the Spanish handball hegemony they beat archrivals BM Atlético Madrid 34:31 to lift the Supercopa in front of 9500 fans at Palacio de Vistalegre in Madrid.

Atlético introduced seven new faces in the match; too many changes combined with lack of preparation affected Madrid´s game. Despite winning the IHF Super Globe two weeks ago head coach Talant Dujshebaev admitted after the match his team still needs to improve its defensive performance.

"We didn’t reach our standard level in defence. The communication between the goalkeeper and the defence in front of him needs to get better,” said Dujshebaev, whose players were struggling on the other end of court as well. In the first half Barcelona kept them scoreless for ten minutes.

The linking-up between Madrid´s new playmaker Ivano Balić and line player Julen Aginagalde seemed to worked well. But Barcelona have their own homework too.

One of the new reinforcements – Eduardo Gurbindo together with young Ángel Montoro will face a difficult task. They have to fill the gap of the Hungarian László Nagy who left to Veszprém. "Gurbindo played an excellent game," coach Xavi Pascual praised the new right back.

Belarusian Siarhei Rutenka, scored eleven goals and he was voted the player-of-the-final. "He was extraordinary. In the pre-season he was hampered by some problems, but today he was spectacular. It was one of the best games since he arrived in Barcelona,” Pascual said.

The new Barcelona´s goalkeeper Arpad Sterbik, who left Atletico this summer, did not play, but everything indicates that he will have a key role in Barcelona, who will try to break the curse chasing the Supercopa champion. In the last four seasons the winner of this trophy never succeeded in the league title race.

Markussen undergoes surgery

The Danish national team player Nikolaj Markussen undergoes minor surgery of the left knee on Wednesday. The left back from Atlético Madrid, who didn't play the Spanish Supercopa last Saturday, will not be able to play for two to three weeks, however, he will be available for Atlético for their opener of the new season in the VELUX EHF Champions League against THW Kiel on 30 September in Madrid.

Markussen´s problems began last month and an MRI last week detected a benign cyst in the left knee.