Barcelona cruise into quarter-final

After the clear 29:22 win for the Catalonian team in Aalborg last Sunday, Barcelona cruised to an even larger win in the Palau Blaugrana Saturday night, where the Danish team ran into their largest Champions League defeat so far with 31:20.

VELUX EHF Champions League Last 16, second leg:
FC Barcelona (ESP) vs Aalborg Handball (DEN) 31:20 (16:11)
First leg 29:22. Barcelona qualified for the quarter-finals on aggregate score 60:42.

Having been sent out by AG København in the quarter-final of the 2011/12 season, FC Barcelona will have a considerably better feeling about Danish opponents now after having sent Danish teams out of the competition two years in a row.

Last years, Barcelona won 58:50 on aggregate against Bjerringbro-Silkeborg in the Last 16, and this season they got an even easier Last 16 tie against Danish champions Aalborg Handball.

Barcelona's 29:22 win in the Gigantium in Aalborg last Sunday had more or less reduced the return match to a formality.

This did not make Barcelona relax Saturday night in the Palau Blaugrana, though.

2,540 spectators saw Aalborg suffer the biggest defeat in their Champions League history, even though they had actually been reinforced since the first leg.

Compared to the first match, Aalborg had got line player Jacob Bagersted back from injury, while right back Johan Jacobsson was able to play a little more than in the first leg.

This did not help the visitors much, though. Aalborg scored the first goals of the match, but from then on the game belonged to the home team who did not need much time to establish a four goal lead, and from a five goal lead at half time, Barcelona increased throughout the last 30 minutes.

Personal triumph for Robin

A couple of times, the Barcelona lead was at 12 goals before being 11 at the end which give Barcelona an 18 win on aggregate.

The second half turned into a bit of a personal triumph for Barcelona's French goalkeeper Mickael Robin.

Robin, who was signed from Montpellier earlier this season as stand-in for injured Arpad Sterbik, replaced Danijel Saric in the Barcelona goal in the second half and did extremely well for last season's VELUX FINAL4 runners-up.