Aleix Gómez beats Niklas Landin with a penalty kick in the semifinals of the Champions League Final Four.FABIAN BIMMER (REUTERS)
The Cologne Pavilion started like a witch’s cauldron, made it clear to Barcelona that they were playing on unfriendly ground against Kiel, and ended with a harmless bang and horn concert in the corner of the German fans. The strongest and most solid Barça submitted with great authority this Saturday to an opponent who fell short after the break and couldn’t withstand the pace of Barça’s production and Aleix Gómez in fan mode (12 goals in 13 shots). On the other hand, without the injured Sagosen and Pekeler (who together scored a quarter of their team’s goals in the Champions League) and a transparent goal (Niklas Landin ended with just six saves and a meager 17% success rate), the wall cracked it , while Carlos Ortega’s boys found the exact solutions. At the foot of the track, in the culé box, a tanned Joan Laporta, with Iñaki Urdangarin just behind him, licked his lips for victory and counted for his team’s eleventh European Cup.
Never since the tournament was dissolved with a Final Four in the German city over the past decade has a current champion reached the finals the following year. Barcelona had never defeated Kiel in Cologne. The Barça team did both this Saturday. The third remains. Actually the only one that appears in the history books. Opposite Kielce (this Sunday, 6 p.m., Dazn), which returned in the early afternoon to eat Veszprem (35-37) with ten minutes of fury. In the group stage, the squad of the Dujshebaev family (Talant looks after his sons Álex and Dani) defeated Barça in both duels.
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Niklas Landin versus Gonzalo Perez de Vargas. In the crowds of the Lanxess Arena, there wasn’t a conversation that didn’t end (or begin) with these two goalies. In his extremities, a fair bit would reach the finals, they predicted. It can’t be said that none of them broke the bank, but the absence of the first left his team to a lesser extent. Toledo is remembered for many more memorable performances (10 interventions and 28%), but he stopped several in the second half in the midst of his own rise and helped shore up the win. With no goalkeepers to dominate the attack, everything was settled and nobody shone more than Aleix Gómez, the shy kid who keeps scoring from the right as well as from seven yards (five goals). He doesn’t speak, he runs and shoots.
The Wiencek Way
For a good stretch, the shooting was mutual. They sent the attacks. Barcelona tried to gallop, his favorite menu, and Kiel punished from the outside and with the hammer from Patrick Wiencek’s pivot. The German, a very tough guy in defence, one of those Germans who don’t walk around thinking, also knows how to glide in attack. He was the top producer of the first half at Kiel: six goals from seven shots. As it later turned out (he only added another after the break), it might not have been a bad deal for Barcelona that their best rival was Wiencek. The fact is that nobody could tie him up in that first half. Kiel struck with him and from the outside with Reinkind (four goals without a miss before the break) and Weinhold (3).
The two technicians exchanged their goalkeepers. Carlos Ortega soon made it, midway through the first half. Filip Jicha as he started to look overwhelmed in the second. None, however, found solutions in this direction, because almost everything was cooked in the attacks. The one from Barcelona kept up the pace, while the one from Kiel broke off in the second half, also because Pérez de Vargas left several signs of life.
On the way back from the dressing room, the rise of the culé had no turning back. The lead grew and apart from a slight pressure four minutes from the end (29-32), the Gauls from the corner of the Barça fans, barely two hundred in front of a place left to their host celebration, had time to extend the game. N’Guessan, Langaro and always Aleix Gómez curved a keel without dismounts and finally as calm as the crowd. After a season of many doubts, in which the taste of defeat was tasted again halfway, Barça are where no one has been. The current champion will defend the crown in the finals.
Kiel, 30 – Barcelona, 34
keel: Nicholas Landin; Ekberg (3.1p), Reinkind (6), Wiencek (7), Weinhold (3), Bilyk (2), Horak (-) -from seven-, Myrhol (1), Duvnjak (2), Zarabec (3) . Magnus Landin (1), Ehrlich (2), Dahmke (-) and Quensted (ps).
barca: Pérez de Vargas (Maciel, m. 23 to 28); Gómez (12, 4p), Mem (4), Fábregas (2), Cindric (3), N’ Guessan (3), Ángel Fernández (3) -from seven-, Petrus (-), Richardson (-), Janc (2), Ariño (1), Lángaro (3), Ben Ali (1) and Ali Zein (-).
referee: Nenad Nikolic and Dusan Stojkovic. They ruled out Fábregas (twice) Petrus, Ben Ali (straight red, min. 54) and Mem, Wienhold (2), Reinkind (2) and Magnus Landin.
marker: 2-2, 4-5, 8-9, 12-12, 16-15, 19-18 (break), 22-20, 24-22, 28-24, 31-26, 32-27 and 34- 30
Lanxess Arena, Cologne. 19,750 spectators.
Kulesh from Kielce caught by lye ROBERTO PFEIL (AFP)
The food talk in Cologne began with an episode that was partly reminiscent of something that had happened at the same place six years earlier. The protagonists this Saturday were the same: Kielce and Veszprem. In 2016, the Polish team, led by Talant Dujshebaev, made one of the most memorable comebacks of the tournament in the final against the Hungarian team: nine goals in just 15 minutes. He didn’t need so much this time, it was also a semi-final, but by coffee time at the Lanxess Arena, yellow fever spread again across the floor to claim the same victim (35-37).
After a first half with a slight dominance from Veszprem (18-16) thanks to ten saves from Rodrigo Corrales, the break brought a remarkable twist. Ten minutes were enough for Kielce to tighten the nuts and mercilessly squeeze her rival, who ended a week that will go straight to his horror museum: last weekend he lost the league at the last moment and this Saturday he stayed in the gutter with the first Substitution in the Final Four of Champions.
A part of 3-9 after the break broke up the vote. Dani Dujshebaev started with a brace, the rude Blagotinsek attacked with a straight red in the 35th minute and Wolff made one of his few stops of the afternoon (just nine, with a low 23% success) at seven yards. On the other hand, Corrales had set the pace early on but the Hungarian goal suffered a fatal blackout in the first 20 minutes of the second half, the same with the Galician as with Cupara. No stopping on this route between the two. The one from Kielce didn’t stand out for his performance, but this setback and the rise of Talant Dujshebaev’s boys meant a lot for Veszprem.
Kielce scored 21 goals on the way back from the dressing room. A fan who ends up eliminating his rival who still hasn’t won the European Cup, either in the new format or the old one. Kielce, meanwhile, will seek his second crown this Sunday. The first was raised this afternoon in memory of 2016.
Veszprem, 35 – Kielce, 37
vezprem: Corrales (Cupara, m.42 to 54); Marguc (6.4p), Blagosintek (1), Mahé (1), Fathy (4), Lye (8), Strlek (7) -from seven-, Nenadic (6), Maqueda (1), Nilsson (1) . Ligetvári (-) and Sipos (-).
Kielce: Wolff (Konecki, m.22 to 30); Moryto (8.3p), Álex Dujshebaev (4), Gebala (-), Karalek (2), Karacic (5), Nahí (2) -start seven-, Kulesh (4), Sicko (2), Tournat (4 ) , Vujovic (2), Sanchez-Migallon (-), Daniel Dujshebaev (3), Thrastarson (1) and Paczkowski (-).
referee: Mads Hansen and Jesper Madsen. They ruled out Karalek (twice), Sánchez-Migallón, Vujovic, Gebala, Ligetvari (two), Blagosintek (min. 11 and 34 with a direct red card), Maqueda (two) and Sipos (two).
partially: 2-3, 5-7, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, 16-18 (break), 20-20, 24-21, 27-24, 30-27, 35-31 and 37- 35 (end).
Lanxess Arena, Cologne. About 18,000 spectators.
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