There is no one who can with Barcelona handball

Cindric, Barça's top scorer with eight goals, dismantled the GOG defense. Mads Claus Rasmussen (EFE)

In the penultimate training at the Ciudad Deportiva, Carlos Ortega worked many exercises to jump to pressure before some skepticism, but articulated a speech that ended up convincing everyone, because he understood that intensity would be the hallmark of the tie against the effervescent Danish Gudme (GOG). He wasn't wrong. Afterward, he gathered the team and it was clear. "Keep in mind that we will almost certainly go to Denmark for the 18," he warned, aware of the capital of the match, the first leg of a quarterfinal of the Champions League, a previous step for the Final Four that will be played, as usual, in Cologne on June 17 and 18. The company is morrocotuda, because Barça intends to beat its own record, since it adds two laurels in a row – something that nobody ever achieved – and focuses on the third. After the challenge in Denmark and thanks to Nielsen in goal and Cindric (8 goals) in the rival, he has a foot and a half in the absence of the return, next week.

Soon the two teams showed that they are going, that theirs is to run – although Barça, with Ortega on the bench after relieving Xavi Pascual, also enjoys the static game – an electric handball and counterattack, also of high flights. The proposal, however, wore down the GOG because it has a starting team (Swedish international goalkeeper Tobias Thulin; its leader on the court, veteran center back Morten Olssen; full-backs Emil Madsen and Simon Pytlick, and pivot Lukas Jorgensen) but a second unit brave, a matter of wallet and budget. But at the beginning he was also weighed by the Barça goalkeeper Emil Nielsen, a true golden scarecrow.

One hand here, one foot there and the spar or post by acullá. Nielsen may have a few pounds – a specific position that does not require resistance – but she does not lack any elasticity or reflexes, nor skill. A full-fledged recital, a grinder that choked the Gudme and that tried to replicate Thulin in his area, remarkable his performance but insufficient against the Barça cyclone. And all at the speed of light. Like that goal from Janc, who received the ball quickly from Nielsen after a goal against and from the middle of the field made a goal because he did not give the goalkeeper time to return to the track.

There was a hurry, supersonic attacks and few as good at running as Luka Cindric, who in training usually takes muscle from his teammates when he scores a beautiful goal. Gesture that was saved in the Jyske Bank Arena but that could well have done, cut shots that took sparks to the net. Something similar to what Melvin Richardson achieved and that, more subtle, Fabregas repeated as a pivot. An efficiency that Barça expressed on the scoreboard from very early with two goals of advantage to reach the four (11-15) and close before the intermission with four (15-19).

After the break the script was inflexible, with the magician Cindric again appearing in the land of giants to make his many, show time of the good, also with the physical exuberance of Dika Mem, a Hulk who ended up bumping into the ground because he hurt his right calf and was taken off the track by the companions. The culé party was joined by Wanne —evidence that the Barça bench has reel and carats—, always with the wand in his hands to make the difficult easy. Bites of the Barça that highlighted their scoring ability, even though Madsen (9 goals) and Tollbring (6) resisted their fate, happy when Barça remained in numerical inferiority. But if something failed, of course, under the sticks was Nielsen, so inspired that he even stopped with his face and barely gave space to Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas, another universal goal.

Triumph with seven goals of advantage and category for Barça, which has 25 unbeaten duels in the Champions League – 23 wins and two draws – and seals half a ticket for the Final Four.

GOG, 30 – BARCELONA, 37

GOG: Thulin; Morten Olsen (4), Madsen (9), Pytlick (2), Tollbring (6), Jorgensen (5), Rasmussen (2), Pedersen (2), Jakobsen (0), Clausen (0) and Legér (0), Cehte (0).

Barcelona: Nielsen and Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas; Cindric (8), Dika Mem (4), Melvin Richardson (4), Aleix Gómez (2), N'guessan (4), Martí Soler (1), Ludovic Fabregas (5), Hampus Wanne (4), Janc (2), Makuc (2) and Luis Frade (1).

Partials every five minutes: 2-3, 5-7, 8-11, 11-15, 14-17 and 15-19 —break— 17-23, 20-25, 22-29, 25-31 27-34 and 30-37.

Arbitrators: Arthur Brunner (Switzerland) and Morad Salah (Switzerland). They excluded Clausen, Fabregas, Jorgensen, Dika Mem and Cehte for two minutes.

Jyske Bank Arena. About 5,000 spectators.

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