Aleix Gómez beats Niklas Landin on a penalty during the Champions League Final Four semifinal.FABIAN BIMMER (REUTERS)

The Cologne pavilion started like a cauldron, making it clear to Barcelona that they were playing in unfriendly territory against Kiel, and ended with a harmless jingle of noises and horns in the corner of the German fans.

The firmer and more solid Barça submitted this Saturday with great authority to an opponent who fell short after the break, unable to withstand the pace of Barça production and Aleix Gómez in fan mode (12 goals in 13 shots).

On the other side, without the injured Sagosen and Pekeler (between the two they added a quarter of their team's goals in the Champions League) and a transparent goal (Niklas Landin finished with just six saves and a poor 17% success rate), the wall It was cracking while Carlos Ortega's boys were finding the precise solutions.

At the foot of the track, in the culé box,

Never had a defending champion reached the final the following year since the tournament was resolved in the last decade with a Final Four in the German city.

Barcelona had never defeated Kiel at the Cologne event.

The Barça team did both things this Saturday.

The third is left.

Actually, the only one that appears in the history books.

Opposite will be Kielce (this Sunday, 6:00 p.m., Dazn), which in the early afternoon returned to eat Veszprem (35-37) with ten minutes of fury.

In the group stage, the Dujshebaev family squad (Talant manages his sons Álex and Dani) defeated Barça in both duels.

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Niklas Landin against Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas.

In the huddles of the Lanxess Arena there was no conversation that didn't end (or start) with these two goalkeepers.

In his extremities would be a good piece of the final, they predicted.

It cannot be said that none of them broke the bank, but the

of the first one left his team in lesser cloth.

Much more memorable performances are remembered from Toledo (10 interventions and 28%), but he stopped several in the second half in the midst of the rise of his own and helped to shore up the victory.

Without goalkeepers as outstanding pieces, everything was resolved in attack, and there nobody shone more than Aleix Gómez, the shy boy who hits non-stop, the same from the right wing as from seven meters (five goals).

He doesn't speak, he runs and shoots.

The Wiencek Way

For a good stretch, the shooting was reciprocal.

They sent the attacks.

Barcelona tried to gallop, their favorite menu, and Kiel punished from outside and with the hammer from Patrick Wiencek's pivot.

The German, a very tough guy in defense, one of those Teutons who don't go around with any contemplations, also knows how to slide in attack.

He was the top producer in the first half at Kiel: six goals from seven shots.

As it was later discovered (he only added another after the break), it may not have been a bad deal for Barcelona that the best rival was Wiencek.

The fact is that in that first half no one could tie him up.

Kiel struck with him and from outside with Reinkind (four goals without fail until the break) and Weinhold (3).

The two technicians changed their goalkeepers.

Carlos Ortega did it soon, midway through the first half.

Filip Jicha, when he began to be overwhelmed in the second.

However, none found solutions in that vein because almost everything was cooked in the attacks.

The one from Barcelona kept up the pace while the one from Kiel cracked in the second half, also because Pérez de Vargas left several signs of life.

On the way back from the locker room, the rise of the culé had no going back.

The advantage was climbing and, except for a slight squeeze four minutes from the end (29-32), the Gaul from the corner of Barça fans, barely two hundred in front of a venue given to their host, had time to expand on the celebration.

N'Guessan, Langaro and always Aleix Gómez cornered a Kiel with no exits and, finally, as quiet as the crowd.

After a season of many doubts, of re-tasting the taste of defeat halfway through, Barça is where no one was.

The current champion will defend the crown in the final event.

Kiel, 30 - Barcelona, ​​34

Kiel

: Niklas Landin;

Ekberg (3.1p), Reinkind (6), Wiencek (7), Weinhold (3), Bilyk (2), Horak (-) -starting seven-, Myrhol (1), Duvnjak (2), Zarabec (3) , Magnus Landin (1), Ehreig (2), Dahmke (-) and Quensted (ps).

Barça

: Pérez de Vargas (Maciel, m. 23 to 28);

Gómez (12, 4p), Mem (4), Fábregas (2), Cindric (3), N' Guessan (3), Ángel Fernández (3) -starting seven-, Petrus (-), Richardson (-), Janc (2), Ariño (1), Lángaro (3), Ben Ali (1) and Ali Zein (-).

Referees

: Nenad Nikolic and Dusan Stojkovic.

They excluded Fábregas (twice) Petrus, Ben Ali (direct red, min. 54) and Mem, Wienhold (2), Reinkind (2) and Magnus Landin.

Score

: 2-2, 4-5, 8-9, 12-12, 16-15, 19-18 (rest), 22-20, 24-22, 28-24, 31-26, 32-27 and 34 -30.

Lanxess Arena, Cologne.

19,750 spectators.

Kulesh, from Kielce, grabbed by Lauge. ROBERTO PFEIL (AFP)

Kielce yellow fever embitters Veszprem again

The after-meal conversation in Cologne opened with an episode that was partly reminiscent of something that had already happened six years ago in the same place.

The protagonists this Saturday were the same: Kielce and Veszprem.

In 2016, the Polish team led by Talant Dujshebaev scored one of the tournament's most rewind comebacks in the final against the Hungarian team: scoring nine goals in just 15 minutes.

This time he didn't need as much, it was also a semifinal, but at coffee time, at the Lanxess Arena, a yellow fever spread over the parquet again to claim the same victim (35-37).

After a first half with a slight dominance by Veszprem (18-16) thanks to the ten saves by Rodrigo Corrales, the break brought about a remarkable turn of events.

Ten minutes were enough for Kielce to tighten the nuts and mercilessly squeeze their rival, who ended a week that will go straight to his museum of horrors: last weekend he lost the League at the last moment and this Saturday he stayed in the gutter at the first change in the Final Four of the Champions.

A partial of 3-9 after the intermission resolved the ballot.

Dani Dujshebaev started with a double, the rude Blagotinsek charged with a straight red in the 35th minute and Wolff left one of his few stops of the afternoon in seven meters (just nine, with a meager 23% success).

On the other shore, Corrales had set the pace at the start, but the Hungarian goal suffered a fatal blackout during the first 20 minutes of the second half, the same with the Galician as with Cupara.

Not a stop on that stretch between the two.

The one from Kielce was not distinguished by its production, but that braking back plus the growth of Talant Dujshebaev's boys were a lot for Veszprem.

21 goals were scored by Kielce on the way back from the locker room.

A fan who ended up dispatching his rival, who still hasn't claimed victory in the European Cup, neither in the new nor in the old format.

Kielce, meanwhile, will seek its second crown this Sunday.

The first was raised on that afternoon to remember 2016.

Veszprem, 35 - Kielce, 37

Veszprem

: Corrales (Cupara, m.42 to 54);

Marguc (6.4p), Blagosintek (1), Mahé (1), Fathy (4), Lauge (8), Strlek (7) -starting seven-, Nenadic (6), Maqueda (1), Nilsson (1) , Ligetvári (-) and Sipos (-).

Kielce

: Wolff (Kornecki, d.22 to 30);

Moryto (8.3p), Álex Dujshebaev (4), Gebala (-), Karalek (2), Karacic (5), Nahí (2) -starting seven-, Kulesh (4), Sicko (2), Tournat (4 ), Vujovic (2), Sánchez-Migallon (-), Daniel Dujshebaev (3), Thrastarson (1) and Paczkowski (-).

Referees

: Mads Hansen and Jesper Madsen.

They excluded Karalek (twice), Sánchez-Migallón, Vujovic, Gebala, Ligetvari (two), Blagosintek (min. 11 and 34 with a direct red card), Maqueda (two) and Sipos (two).

Partials

: 2-3, 5-7, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, 16-18 (rest), 20-20, 24-21, 27-24, 30-27, 35-31 and 37 -35 (end).

Lanxess Arena, Cologne.

Some 18,000 spectators.

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