Barça 33-30 Benidorm: Resistance wins through

The Barça handball team have seen off Benidorm in a game in which Melvin Richardson topped the 50 mark for ASOBAL goals this season, with the offence eventually shining against a brave visitor that took the gamble of playing much of the match with seven outfield players.

Benidorm were unbeaten on the road this season, and today we got see just what a good side they are. But not quite enough to put a stop to barça's relentless march through their Liga campaign, with a big European fixture next up on Thursday against Veszprem.

One of the standout performance came from young Djordje Cikusa, who seems to get better and better every time he plays, and with a 7-point lead at the interval, the job looked done and dusted.

But inspired by their fine Italian star Tommaso de Angelis, Benidorm battled back hard, and actually won the second half by four goals as the gap gradually narrowed and narrowed, albeit never quite enough to truly worry a Barça side that eventually won by three - which is a much closer margin than they are used to winning by in this competition.

MATCH STATS

FC Barcelona: 33
TM Benidorm: 30

Barça: Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas (4), Jonathan Carlsbogard (2), Jaime Gallego (3), Aitor Ariño (3), Blaz Janc (2), Haniel Langaro (2), Melvin Richardson (9), Emil Nielsen (1), Hampus Wanne (1), Aleix Gómez (3), Djorde Cikusa (4), Luís Frade (1), Petar Cikusa (3), Javi Rodríguez (1).

Benidorm: Krystian Witkowski (7), Daniil Zhukov (3), Tommaso De Angelis (6), Leo Alonso (0), Ramiro Martínez (5), Nacho Vallés (5), David Roca (1), Filip Bujovic (2), Pablo Vainstein (1), Juan Carlos Sempere (3).

Periods: 3-1; 6-3; 9-4; 10-5; 13-8; 17-10 / HT / 18-11; 21-15; 24-19; 27-20; 30-24; 33-30.

Referees: Roland Sánchez Bordetas & Josep Millán Cazorla.