FC Barcelona 37-24 Esperance Sportive de Tunis: Semi-finalists

Just 24 hours after beating Ministros of Maexico, Barça have defeated Esperance Sportive de Tunis to ensure a place in the world club championship semi-final. With 7-goal Ludovic Fàbregas leading the way and Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas as brilliant as ever with a 49% save rate, there only ever looked being one winner in this game in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

Łomża Industria Kielce of Poland will now the the opposition in Saturday's semi-final, a repeat of last season's Champions League Final.

Leading 18-12 at the break, the Catalans always looked to have the Tunisians under perfect control without utterly dominating, while they upped things a gear after the restart, when a 6-0 streak as good as clinched victory. The Tunisians reduced the gap towards the end, but a blaugrana win was never at threat.

MATCH STATS

Barça: Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas (gk), Luka Cindric (2), Ludovic Fàbregas (7), Dika Mem (2), Timothey N'Guessan (6), Aleix Gómez (4), Aitor Ariño (3), starting seven, Thiagus Petrus (2), Blaz Janc (1), Luís Frade (4), Melvyn Richardson (1), Jonathan Carlsbogard, Hampus Wanne (2), Haniel Langaro (3), Artur Parera.

Esperance Sportive de Tunis: Assil Namli (gk), Makram Slama, Achraf Margheli (1), Hazem Bacha (1), Islem Jbeli (2), Oussama Boughanmi (4), Tarek Jallouz, starting seven, Mohamed Sfar (gk), Abdelhak Ben Salah (7), Firas Jlidi, Rjab Al Shoushen (2), Bilel Abdelli (1), Mohamed Ali Bhar, Lyes Hachicha (5), Ghassen Toumi (1).

Periods: 3-2, 8-4, 11-4, 15-6, 16-8, 18-12 (HT), 21-14, 25-15, 30-17, 30-19, 33-22 & 37-24 (FT)

Referees: Robert Schulze, Tobias Tonnes.

*PHOTO: IHF