No trophy for Barcelona after one-goal loss

FC Barcelona Lassa's treble dream has come to an end before the final of the IHF Super Globe: After nine straight wins in three participations, including the finals in 2013 and 2014, the current VELUX EHF Champions League champions were defeated in the semi-final for the first time by Füchse Berlin.

The 2015 EHF Cup Winners clinched their berth for their second international final within four months on their maiden voyage at the IHF Super Globe. As expected, their opponent will be another debutant: MVM Veszprem.

After their clear win in the semi-final against the student team of Sydney University the Hungarians aim for their second international title in 2015 too -  after winning the SEHA Liga in March.

Barcelona will face Sydney for the bronze place on the final day of the event.

Though he scored an incredible number of eleven goals, Macedonian Kiril Lazarov missed his fourth straight Super Globe final and thus his fourth straight trophy.

When Lazarov netted for 25:23 exactly three minutes before the final buzzer, the semi-final seemed to be sealed for defending Super Globe and Champions League champions FC Barcelona Lassa.

The Catalans had constantly been ahead after the 15 minute mark (6:5) - but then Icelandic Bjarki Elisson started to put on a show for Füchse Berlin.

First, he assisted Jesper Nielsen (24:25), then he scored the equalizer 100 seconds before the end, and finally Elisson remained cold as ice, when Berlin won a penalty with the final buzzer, fainting Barca goalkeeper Danijel Saric. But when the scoreboard read 26:25, the Füchse players knew whom to thank most: goalkeeper Peter Stochl, who stood like a wall in crunch time and saved a decisive shot 15 seconds before the end - his 19th save in 60 minutes.

Another key was again Petar Nenadic. The Serb scored eight times against Barcelona after he netted ten times in the victorious quarter-final against Club Africain (TUN).

“This is simply a sensation, what our players have managed to do today, and not forgetting what Peter Stochl did between the posts,” said Berlin’s manager Bob Hanning after being the first team in this (pre)-season to beat FC Barcelona Lassa.

This result means that the big re-match for the 2015 VELUX EHF FINAL4 final will have to be postponed to a later stage of the VELUX EHF Champions League.

In contrast to Barcelona, MVM Veszprem extended their winning streak to eleven wins in all eleven (pre)-season matches so far.

Unlike their quarter-final win against Egyptian side Al-Ahly, the Hungarians were constantly ahead against the amateurs from down under. But Sydney managed impressively to keep up for 42 minutes (16:14).

Then the Aussies lacked power - and Veszprem forged ahead to the first double-figure advantage (27:17) within only 13 minutes. Veszprem’s scorer was the 2014 and 2015 VELUX EHF Champions League top scorer Momir llic with eight, ahead of Slovenian right wing Gasper Marguc (7).

So the Champions League finalists had the chance to save some powers for Thursday’s grand finale against the EHF Cup winners. In the 2011/12 Champions League season, both sides faced and both were away winners in the Group Phase. Veszprem won in Berlin by 29:24, while the Foxes struck back to win at Lake Balaton 33:24.

As Veszprem is the first ever Hungarian team to be part of the IHF Super Globe, Berlin can become the second ever German winner after THW Kiel in 2011.

Result summary: Quarter-finals:

MKB MVM Veszprem (HUN) vs Taubate (BRA) 27:24 (12:12)
Füchse Berlin (GER) - Club Africain (TUN) 27:24 (14:12)
FC Barcelona Lassa (ESP) vs Al-Ahly (EGY) 20:16 (12:8)
Al-Sadd (QAT) vs Sydney (AUS) 20:21 (10:9)
Tuesday, 8 September (all times are local):

Semi-finals:

Füchse Berlin (GER) vs FC Barcelona Lassa (ESP) 26:25 (12:15)
MVM Veszprem (HUN) vs Sydney University (AUS) 29:17 (9:5)

Placement round 5/8:

Club Africain (TUN) vs Al-Ahly (EGY) 17:20 (9:9)
Taubate (BRA) vs Al-Sadd (QAT) 32:24 (15:11)

Final day - Thursday, 10 September (all times are local):

14:00: Placement match 7/8: Al-Ahly (EGY) vs Al-Sadd (QAT)
16:00: Placement match 5/6: Club Africain (TUN) - Taubate (BRA)
18:00 Bronze medal match: FC Barcelona (ESP) vs Sydney University (AUS)
20:00 Final: Füchse Berlin (GER) vs MVM Veszprem

Live stream of the IHF Super Globe:
http://shoof.alkass.net/shoof/live/live_2.php

Live ticker of the IHF Super Globe:
www.ihf.info