FCBARCELONA.CAT

15.03.2009 23:45

Champions! (29-26)

Verònica Díez

Barça Borges has won the King’s Cup after beating Ciudad Real by 29-26.

The 16th King’s Cup for the handball team has come after an evenly matched final with Ciudad Real in which Xavi Pascual’s men kept their cool. Individual titles for Kasper Hvidt as best keeper and Iker Romero as top goalscorer were followed by captain David Barrufet lifting the second trophy of the season so far after the Asobal Super Cup in which the Catalans also saw off Ciudad Real.

Mutual respect

Barça Borges and Ciudad Real showed great respect for each other and the defences dominated the start of the game. In the 11th minute Jerome Fernández netted twice to put the visitors up by 5-6 but strikes by Iker Romero and Laszlo Nagy left it all square at 7-7 three minutes later.

High tempo

Then Romero ably supported by Lozano and Nagy upped the tempo to put the Catalans ahead for the first time in the 18th minute at 11-10 after a turnover. Another turnover made it 12-10. But Ciudad Real fought back to go into the break at 14-14.

Evenly matched

After the restart both teams ramped up their game and neither side could forge a significant lead. The visitors sought to cancel out Barça’s attack with Sterbik in their goal being their best player and only Romero was able to beat him regularly. Kasper Hvidt was also magnificent between the sticks for Barça and helped the Catalans attack on the break.

Lifting the Cup

A five minute score of 5-2 leading up to the 20th minute put Barça ahead by three at 24-21. Ciudad Real pushed their defence up to try to surprise Barça but the Catalans responded well and did enough in the last five minutes to protect their lead and lift the Cup.