FCBARCELONA.CAT

20.12.2008 19:22

New Year as joint leaders (25-32)

Verònica Díez

FC Barcelona Borges has won its last game of the first half of the season away at Teucro by 25-32. The Catalans end the year as joint Asobal League leaders after Ciudad Real went down at Arrate.

Barça struggled to dominate the game at first as Teucro put up stiff resistance. It wasn’t until the end of the first half that the Catalans were able to take control with five unanswered goals that left the scoreboard reading 11-16 at the break. In the second half Barça kept up the pressure to run out winners of their last game before the Christmas break in the League.

Home team puts on squeeze

Teucro managed to keep up with Barça for 22 minutes at which point the score stood at 11-11. Bozidar Markicevic and Marko Curuvija put the squeeze on the Catalans to stop them playing their natural game and the home side then took advantage of defensive lapses to score goals. Mikkel Hansen and Cristian Ugalde were the most effective Barça strikers at this stage of the game, finding the net on three and two occasions respectively.

Barna Putic came out onto the court and scored his first goal for Barça Borges (8-9)

Barça bounce bank

The last eight minutes of the first half were completely different from what had gone before. FC Barcelona Borges scored an unanswered series of five goals and that marked the beginning of the end for the home side. The second line led by Juanín García and Jesper Noddesbo combined with Laszlo Nagy to swing the game the Catalans’ way. David Barrufet was also outstanding in the visitors’ goal. At half-time the scoreboard read 11-16.

Under control

In the second half Barça Borges maintained a lead which never fell below five goals. The defence was a lot more solid and fortune favoured the attack, with Juanín García and Albert Rocas each finding the net four times. García led the side in the first few minutes of the second half, with Rocas taking over his role towards the end of the match. Rubén Garabaya and Cristian Ugalde scored the last two goals as the Catalans closed out the game at 25-32.