FCBARCELONA.CAT

20.03.2010 17:39

Into the final!

Verònica Díez (Enviada especial)

Barca Borges again won out in the semi finals of the Copa del Rey, seeing off a dogged challenge from El Reyno de Navarra San Antonio to book a place in Sunday evening’s final.

It was the third year running that Barca had beaten the Pamplona team at this stage, but after a slow start, the team needed to up their pace to take this one and again make the final.

Sluggish start

San Antonio set the game up with a tough 6-0 defence which made it hard for a sluggish looking Barca to break down early on and took advantage of their fast wide players to stage an early threat to Saric’s goal. On four minutes with Noddesbo and Nagy off and Barca reduced to just five players, San Antonio took a 2-5 lead before Barca tightened up and drew back to 7-7 on 11 minutes with a powerful Laszlo Nagy effort.

Sarmiento and Noddesbro

FC Barcelona always like to play the counter attacking game, but they were not using the tactic too well in the first half, depending more on the connection between Dani Sarmiento and Jesper Noddesbo, who again put in a sensational game, again and again setting up his partner with a series of fine passes as Barca began to open up a gap between the teams which had opened to 19-16 at the break.

Done and dusted

San Antonio attempted to put the pressure back on in the second half, but Barca kept their cool and with Victor Tomas again proving decisive they raced to an 8 goal advantage(30-22) on 13 minutes. Barca’s teamwork was proving key as was Rutenka, who missed the quarter finals, who really shook up the game when he came on.

Xavi Pascual used his bench well and used a 5-1 defence as he played out the final minutes.

Or not?

The Pamplona team were not prepared to give up though and they looked to be about to spring a surprise when they took 8 goals to 2 to leave it 32-30 with 5 minutes to play to set up a tense final few minutes in which they closed to 34-33 but Barca stood firm to take the place in Sunday’s final.