Al Sadd v FC Barcelona: SuperGlobe champions! (26-34)

Al Sadd v FC Barcelona: SuperGlobe champions! (26-34)

FC Barcelona have beaten the surprise finalists from Qatar to retain their world title The Catalans cicrculated the ball to perfection and sentenced the tie early in the second half

After winning last year’s inaugural edition of the world clubs handball competition, the SuperGlobe, FC Barcelona have done it again by beating Al Sadd 26-34 in this year’s final. Despite the Qataris putting up a strong first fight in the first half hour, Barça never went behind, and early in the second half were able to start relaxing, safe in the knowledge that the job was as good as done.

Strong start

Barça showed no concern about playing against a side that had home advantage, and held onto an early 4-1 lead that quickly became 10-7. Sarmiento with his circulation, Karabatic with his defensive blocking and Gurbindo with his goals led the storm, while Saric also made fine saves, yet by half time, there were still only two goals in it at 16-14. The Qataris were keen to show that their shock semi-final win against Flensburg of Germany was no fluke, and they made that point very clear indeed.

Breakaway

After the restart, the Qataris even managed to cut the deficit down to one, but then a 5-1 streak put Barça in command, and the Catalans never had to look back from then on as the superhuman effort by Al Sadd in the first half started to pay its toll.

With ten minutes to go it was 28-20 to FCB and the end was in sight. It was plain sailing from then on, and it all finished 34-26. Barça retained the Super Globe and the right to consider themselves double champions of the world!

Força Barça
Força Barça

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