Impressive Barca bring Metalurg to their knees

FC Barcelona have brought Metalurg Skopje to their knees in a convincing fashion. They took the lead of the VELUX EHF Champions League Group C as the only unbeaten team in a match in which Nikola Karabatic has set another Barca milestone. After Veszprem had shattered the dreams of Zaporozhye on Thursday, Group A has already finished their Round 3 with two clear victories of Löwen and Zagreb.

Group A:

RK Pivovarna Lasko Celje (SLO) vs Rhein Neckar Löwen (GER) 25:28 (7:13)

A very weak first half was the reason for Celje’s defeat on home ground. Scoring only seven goals against an initially strong goalkeeper Niklas Landin was too less to finally win this encounter. Rhein Neckar Löwen, pushed by their top scorer Uwe Gensheimer and his ten goals, took their first Group Phase win and passed the Slovenian rivals in the table by three points now. The catch-up chase of the hosts starting with 20 minutes left came too late to endanger the victory of the German side.

Celje had enormous problems in attack in the first half, even a time-out of coach Vladan Matic at the score of 10:5 did not stop the downswing of his team. Gensheimer’s five goals and Landin’s saving percentage of 56 percent in the first half paved the way to the clear six goal lead at the break.

And when Löwen even forged ahead to seven goals at 16:9 for the first (and only) time, the deal was supposed to be sealed. But everything changed when Spanish Löwen player Gereon Guardiola received a red card after a foul. The German team lost their pace, while Celje reduced the gap goal by goal.

When Mate Lekai hit the net for the 18:21 with still 12 minutes on the clock, everything seemed to be open again – but then Löwen returned, stopped the Celje upswing and decided the match at the score of 25:20. The last goals of the Slovenian runners-up came too late to turn the match around.

St. Petersburg HC (RUS) vs RK Croatia Osiguranje Zagreb (CRO) 24:35 (16:15)

For the third time in the third match St. Petersburg were left without any chance and still wait for their first points in the Group Phase. On the other hand, Zagreb earned their second victory and boosted their cushion for reaching the Last 16.

But in contrast to their previous performances St. Petersburg managed to be on eye level with their competitor in the first 30 minutes, surprisingly leading by 16:15 after a leveled first half.

But then Zagreb took the match more serious, while the host lacked the alternatives and power to stand the Croatian storm. By improving the defence and taking their chances to score easy goals, the visitors scored an impressive 12:3 series to decide the match already in the middle of the second half.

At 29:19 the distance was double-figured for the first time, but already then Zagreb had secured their obligatory victory against the home team, who only scored eight times in 30 minutes, while the Croatian team hit the net 20 times. Stepancic and Horvat were the top scorers for the victors by seven goals each, while Nasyrov and Novoselov netted in four times each for St. Petersburg.

Group B:

FC Porto Vitalis (POR) vs THW Kiel (GER) 27:31 (17:16)

With Filip Jicha out due to injury, it was obvious someone from THK Kiel would have to step up in order to prevent surprises from happening in the first ever game to be played in FC Porto’s court Dragao Caixa. Marko Vujin (9), Sigurdsson (6)  and Toft Hansen (6) gave the Germans the win, but Gilberto Duarte (9) and Mick Schubert (7) kept the outstanding atmosphere rolling on the stands for FC Porto.

Kiel was on top of it until the seventh minute, when Schubert made the 5-4 for the Dragons, sealing the first home advantage after a counter-attack. Kiel didn’t establish a consistent rhythm in their offensive game, which stopped them from having more than a one goal advantage by minute 15, when their opponents were breathing Gilberto Duarte, who kept them in the game with three goals in quick succession.

Porto’s left-back did not stop there and put his team up by 14-11 in minute 23’, helped by the Danish winger who put the three goal margin mark (biggest until the moment) on the counter once again. This surprising home advantage stood at 17-14 with only two minutes two go, but Marko Vujin did not let the Portuguese get away with it, scoring two to make the final result at the half.

Transferring their good momentum into the second period, Kiel reminded their opponents who were the three-time European champions with cerebral handball in play, with Sigurdsson taking advantage of Porto’s offensive mistakes. 19-24 was the result inside minute ten, when the Dragons seemed a whole different team who kept wasting their attacks only because of jitters and even lost Salina (always important on defence) after three suspensions.

Andreas Palicka played a huge role in the German response, making precious saves (including penalties) that prevented the Portuguese from reducing the goal margin.  Kiel’s line playing was crucial to maintain a comfortable margin during the second 30 minutes, even after the Dragons took one last breath with their wingers putting the score at 25-28 in minute 21’. This reaction came too late, and allowed the all-blacks to control the scoreboard until the end (27-31). 

17Group C:

FC Barcelona (ESP) vs HC Metalurg (MKD) 35:17 (17:5)

To play at Palau Blaugrana is something completely different than to star on home ground at Boris Trajkovski – this was the lesson Metalurg Skopje have learned at their clear away defeat at FC Barcelona. Thanks to a brilliant performance for nearly 60 minutes the Catalan hosts remained unbeaten and took the lead in this group by five points ahead of the before unbeaten team from Macedonia.

After beating Paris St. Germain in the previous round, Metalurg were on a high-flyer but the last season’s VELUX EHF Champions League finalist brought them down to the floor very early. With a highly stable and movable defence Barcelona pulled the Metalurg’s teeth in the early stages and forced guest’s coach Lino Cervar to take an very early time-out, as his team was down by 2:6 in minute eleven.

But nothing changed, Barca were completely dominant in today’s top duel, they wanted to prove clearly that their draw at Metalurg’s arch rival Vardar in Round 1 had only been a single failure. Especially Kiril Lazarov was hot against his country-fellows, who were below by a double figured result already eight minutes before the break, when Sarmiento scored for the 14:4. Barca even managed to forge ahead to twelve goals at the break – and the one-sided match had been decided.

Despite a strong performance of goalkeeper Darko Stanic Metalurg’s deficit was 18 goals already at the score of 11:29 (goal number nine of nine of Lazarov), as also on the other side Arpad Sterbik (an overall of 18 saves) had a brilliant day. When Barca coach Xavi Pascual started a full rotation, his team lacked concentration for a while, but kept the 18 goal distance until the end. Best Metalurg scorer was Renato Vugrinec by six goals, while Karabatic (7) and Tomas (6) were – below Lazarov – best Barca scorers. And Karabatic made history on Saturday, scoring the 8000^th Barca goal in their European Cup history. And the clear victory is even more impressive, as Siarhei Rutenka did not play for Barcelona.