FC Barcelona v Orlen Wisla Plock: Pole position (30-25)
Barça beat Polish side Wisla Plock 30-25 and are now 2-0 in Champions League play. But things didn’t get off to the most promising of starts when strong defending fired the visitors into a 2-5 lead, and things could have been worse had Pérez de Vargas not been so effective in goal. By the quarter hour, Sarmiento and Ariño had edged Barça back into it at 4-5.
Barça needed to improve, and sending on Lazarov seemed to do the trick. The Macedonian and Karabatic spearheaded the team into an 11-8 lead, although a penalty meant things were still close at 13-12 when half-time was called.
The Poles got back level after the restart, but Saubich and Karabatic responded and Barça were finally away, leading 20-16 after 39 minutes. Wisla Plock did respond, but when Karabatic put five points between the sides at 23-18, it looked like everything was finally under control.
With Noddesbo sin-binned Wisla got back to 23-20, but Lazarov (9/13 in goal attempts) came into his own, while replacement keeper Saric was just as good as Pérez de Vargas had been in the first half. It was a case of defending the lead, something FCB did well and the five-goal difference was maintained until it all ended at 30-25. That’s two wins out of two in Europe for Xavi Pascual and his team.
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