FCBARCELONA.CAT

17.11.2007 20:04

Indisputable leaders (43-25)

Verònica Díez

Barça moved into first place in their Champions League group with a convincing victory over Czech outfit Banik OKD Karvina as the sharpness in front of goal and a strong team game helped the team to triumph.

The Blaugrana are now six points clear at the top of Group A and look to have booked their place in the next stage of the competition. The opening minutes of their game against Karvina was evenly balanced, but soon the hosts took control in the Catalan capital. David Barrufet and Losert teamed up to lead the charge and caused the Czech visitors problems. If there was one thing that stood out for Barça in this encounter, however, it was strong teamwork.

Even opening

Demetrio Lozano opened the scoring the Blaugrana and after going three goals behind, the visitors reacted and quickly drew level. During the opening nine minutes the two sides could not be separated and Karvina were strong in defence, with goalkeeper Marjanovic being particularly impressive. Things soon changed though as Barrufet set the ball rolling and Barça quickly found themselves six goals ahead within four minutes (11-5) Slowly but surely, the hosts began to feel comfortable and they increased their lead even further before the half-time break to 22-14.

Entertaining encounter

The second period much the same patter and Barça did not let the opportunity slip and the goals continued to fly in as the crowd were thoroughly entertained in the Palau. The Blaugrana continued to attack and worked on inflicting even more damage on their beleaguered visitors to end the game with an 18-point winning margin. FC Barcelona's attack and defence gelled superbly, with Jesper Noddesbo and Victor Tomás standing out as they scored six goals each.

Barça were also able to give the shadow players more time on the court as Joan Cañellas took over from Iker Romero, while Eric Gull also played very well alongside Cristian Ugalde.