Barça 33-30 Kielce: Bronze winning reaction

It's the game nobody wants to play, but Barça are at least coming home from the Super Globe with the consolation of having beaten Kielce in the Dammam Sports Hall, Saudi Arabia, to bring home the bronze medal.

The Poles started off looking like they were the more intent of the two sides, going +2 early on, with Barça stopper Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas making sure the damage wasn't even more serious.

Barça worked their way back into the lead, but were back to two goals down at the interval.

But after the restart, the Catalans were a totally different team. They were far better at breaking down the Polish advances, while Dika Mem was leading the charge at the other end. With Pérez de Vargas even more decisive than ever, Barça were soon back level and eventually took the game by three, which comes as some consolation when what they had really hoped to bring back home form the Middle East was another Super Globe.

MATCH STATS

Barça: 33
Kielce: 30

Barça: Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas (0), Aleix Gómez (2), Dika Mem (8), Thiagus Petrus (0), Javi Rodríguez (1), Jonathan Carlsbogard (4) y Aitor Ariño (1), Emil Nielsen (-), Pol Valera (2), Hampus Wanne (3), Blaz Janc (4), Djordje Cikusa (0), Haniel Langaro (2), Melvyn Richardson (3), Luis Frade (3) & Petar Cikusa (0).

Kielce: Andreas Wolff (0), Alex Dujshebaev (3), Daniel Dujshebaev (5), Haukur Thrastarson (3), Szymon Sicko (6), Artsem Karalek (2) y Dylan Nahi (1), Milosz Walach (0), Szymon Wiaderny (2), Tomasz Gebala (0), Michal Olejniczak (0), Igor Karačić (2), Pawel Paczkowski (1), Benoit Kounkoud (1), Nicolas Tournat (4) & Nikodem Blazejewski (-).

Periods: 2-2, 5-7, 7-8, 9-9, 12-11, 14-16 / HT / 18-18, 22-20, 26-22, 28-25, 30-27, 33-30.

Referees: Adam Biro & Oliver Kiss.