FCBARCELONA.CAT

31.03.2007 20:42

A close victory (30-32)

FC Barcelona Cifec made hard work of winning away to Teka Cantabria 30-32, but thanks to the result, Xesco Espar’s side stay third in the Asobal League.

Xesco Espar had forewarned that Teka were always going to be a difficult opponent, despite the difficulties they are currently having. And he turned out to be right, for even though Barcelona looked much the better side early on, they failed to consolidate that advantage and there was always the chance that Teka were going to make a comeback, with the visitors making several errors in defence. But Barça held out to the end to eventually win by a narrow two-goal margin (30-32).

A 0-6 to start

Barça were on fire early and scored six to no reply, and it was a full six minutes before the home side had a goal to celebrate. The early dominance seemed to have a relaxing effect on Cifec, and Teka bounced back with a 7-2 streak to tie the game on eight each. Barça bucked up their ideas, and held a slender three-point lead at the break.

Poor defending

The second half was an altogether less erratic affair, with the scoring being exchanged at more or less similar rates. Teka crawled their way back to 19 each. Barça’s scoring was led by Skrbic, with 7, who took the initiative as Barça settled the result in the final minutes, along with some excellent shot-stopping from Pitufo to leave things definitively at 30-32.