Barça 42-33 Aalborg: Winning return

After ten days of preventative lockdown, the Barça handball team were back in action on Thursday and as if they had never been away they got straight back down to their winning ways. They were in fine form to beat Aalborg 42-33, and it wasn’t just the score but also the way they did it. A frenetic, high-octane performance saw off their Danish opposition that had moments of its own but never really looked like winning this one.

Dika Mem and Blaz Janc led the scoring with siz each and Barça are now outright leaders of their Champions League group with 10 points, one more than Veszprém, who drew with Kiel.

A marathon schedule awaits with a game every three days, but playing like they did today, Barça look very ready for it. First up on Friday at 4.00pm CET is a Liga Asobal game at the Palau Blaugrana against Benidorm, after which the team will head straight to the airport to Pontevedra, where they have a game the very next day at 5.00pm CET away to Dicsa Modular Cisne.

MATCH STATS

Barça: Pérez de Vargas (1), Mortensen (5), Blaz Janc (6), Thiagus Petrus (1), Dika Mem (6), Pálmarsson (5), Frade (2), Möller (ps), Entrerríos (1), Sorhaindo (2), Ariño (1), N’Guessan (3), Aleix Gómez (1), Cindric (5), Fabregas (3), Dolenec (-).

Aalborg: Gade, Samuelsson (3), Sandell (1), Saugstrup Jensen, Claar (3), Christensen (6), Juul Lassen (5), Barthold (5), Jakobsen (3), Marcher (3), Andreas Jensen (3), Christiansen (1), Mollgaard.

Periods: 4-3, 7-5, 10-6, 13-8, 17-13, 20-18 (HT), 24-19, 28-23, 32-26, 36-26, 40-28, 42-33 (FT)