Kiel comes back and will be in the Cologne Final 4 along with Barça, Aalborg and Magdeburg
Barça handball will play the sixth consecutive Final4 of the EHF Champions League, next June at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne (Germany), after beating Paris Saint-Germain again this Thursday (32-31) — whom They beat in the first leg (22-30)– in the second leg of the quarterfinals in a record-breaking Palau Blaugrana.
With eleven titles in the top continental competition in their possession, Barça will try to add the twelfth in Cologne (June 8-9), in an event that has not been lost since the 2017/18 edition, the last ‘Champions’ in whose Final4 they did not There were some ‘culers’ who, despite winning decisively in the first leg in Paris, wanted to complete the party with another victory.
In a Palau Blaugrana that had the best attendance of the season in a handball match (with 5,467 spectators in the stands), Carlos Ortega’s men once again knocked down PSG, leading by 7 goals at the start of the second half and allow themselves the luxury of going ‘half-speed’ while managing their enormous advantage.
There was not even an attempt at a comeback by a PSG that found itself once again surpassed by Barça, led by its captain Dika Mem (7 goals) and by the pivot Luís Frade (6). Both were co-protagonists of the possibly worst news for Barça, since they carried out on their shoulders, as if they were a stretcher, their teammate Pol Valera, who was injured after scoring two goals shortly after entering the court.
Without knowing the extent of a possible Valera injury, the rest was all good news. Record attendance, victory to go to Cologne with morale through the roof, a great defense and a choral attack to dream about at the Lanxess Arena, where last year they lost in the semis and in the penalty shootout against Magdeburg German who was crowned champion.
This time there could be revenge. Barça enters the Final 4 together with Magdeburg, which this time eliminated Industria Kielce in the quarterfinals and again with a penalty shootout, as well as Danish Aalborg and German Kiel, who staged the great comeback in the quarterfinals by winning at home ( 31-21) to a Montpellier that had won by 9 in the first leg.