31.05.2007, 10:36
Decisive Weekend in Spain for next CL

Ciudad Real and Portland have already secured their place in the 2007/08 CL, León and Barcelona are still playing for it. León are in advantage...

Decisive Weekend in Spain for next CL

Spanish Champion Ciudad Real and runner-up Portland San Antonio will be back for the EHF Champions League next season.

The third Spanish CL place is still free for the third ranked team of the Asobal League; accordingly, Ademar León and Barcelona still have to fight this weekend. The team of Manolo Cadenas have one point of advantage over Xesco Espar’s squad.

Ademar will play a relatively easy match against Arrate, while Barcelona will play in the Quijote Arena of Ciudad Real. The goal difference also favours Ademar, so one point would already be enough for the Champions League place.

Difficult situation for Manolo Cadenas

The fight between Ademar and Barcelona put Manolo Cadenas in a strange position. The current coach of Ademar will take over Barcelona next season. As a result, if Leon qualifies for the CL, Cadenas will be out of the competition with Barcelona.

Cadenas showed his professionalism last match, winning a very important game against Portland in his last match as coach in Leon.

Barcelona are working on a very interesting project for next season, signing international players such as Lozano, Kasper or Garabaya and tthe qualification for the CL would be most important for the Catalonian team. Knowing about these ambitions, Ciudad Real will try to win this weekend and keep Barcelona away from CL next season.

Ciudad Real and Portland looking for CL title

After a successful season of the German teams, Ciudad Real and Portland will try to get the title back to Spain. Asobal teams had dominated this competition in the last seasons, so Djusebaiev and Equisoain will have a new objective for next year.

Teka, Bidasoa, Barcelona, Portland and Ciudad Real have already won the Champions League for Spain. Every season the Spanish teams are favourites for the victory, and it will not change for the next season.

TEXT: Fernando Urra Goñi