Barca: De Vargas, Moller – Entrerrios 1, Sorhaindo 3, Dolenec 2, Arino 4, Janc, Gomez 10 (5), Petrus, Mem 1, Cindric 2, Pascual 3, Palmarsson 6, Makuc, Langaro 2, Fabregas 3

 

Telekom Veszprém: Corrales, Cupara – Manaskov 1, Yahia 2, Moraes 7, Markussen 8, Ligetvári, Marguc, Strlek, Blagotinsek 1, Shishkarev 3, Mahé 2, Maqueda 3, Lékai 3

 

Penalties: 7/5 and 0/0

Suspensions: 2 min. and 8 min.

 

Telekom Veszprém started the EHF Champions League game against Barca with a missed back court shot by Markussen, however the Danish’s next shot found the way to the back of the net making it 5:5 in the 8th minute. Markussen scored his third goal by then. The home team had a lead of 9:8 by the 14th minute. Three minutes later Barca took a three goals lead from the many mistakes made by the Veszprém offense. The Spanish was guarding their lead with easy fastbreak goals, and with the saves of Perez de Vargas. Seven minutes before the end of the first half Corrales saved the penalty of Dolenec, while on the other end, Markussen scored a bomb making it 13:11. In the 28th minute, we managed to equalize 13:13 by Mahé. In the last second of the first half, Yahia stole a ball and took the lead, but Gomez made it 15:15 with an overtime penalty, finishing the first half.
 
The second period started with a Palmarsson goal, with a quick Lékai answer from the center. After two bad attacks Barcelona gained a bigger lead once again, they were up 21:18 in the 36th minute. By the 40th minute the home team gained a five goals lead, while Veszprém was suffering in attack. Barca was playing from the mistakes of Veszprém and was guarding the lead, by the 47th minute the difference was five once again. The guest team made 13 technical mistakes by the 50th minute. The Spanish reached the biggest difference in the game in the 53rd minute, 32:26. Nothing went in the way of the „Építők” in the second half, they played with tremendous amount of mistakes and easily lost in Barcelona. The one positive side of the game was the performance of Markussen who scored 8 goals as the starter left back. Final result: Barca – Veszprém 37:30
 

David Davis: The first half was quite good. We wanted to start better than the last games and we could do that, also the players’ attitude was better. In the second, we started to make mistakes and Barca could score easy fastbreak goals to lead by two. This was the key to our loss, our own mistakes killed us basically.
 
Rogerio Moraes: Congratulations to Barca. We have to take the positive things from these games against Barcelona. In the second half, we missed a lot of chances to score and this was the main problem for us. We have to improve for the next game and change our mindset a little bit.

 

 
Xavi Pascual: We showed a great performance today. When Barca and Veszprém play, it is one of the best game in the world. We needed this win today to qualify for the quarterfinal. I am happy because we worked all season for this. We started well, but we knew that Veszprém could win in Palau. In the second, we put one speed more and we deserved to win today.
 
Gonzalo Perez de Vargas: I agree with the coach. We were better today. Veszprém was good in defense and Corrales was also good in the goal. We put one more gear in the second half, we could run in fastbreaks and we could score more than 22 goals in one-half against Veszprém. Happy for the team performance and for taking the two points and being in the first position of the group.
 

 

Photo: Victor Salgado