FC Barcelona v Orlen Wisla Plock: Pole position (30-25)

FC Barcelona v Orlen Wisla Plock: Pole position (30-25)

Barça overcame a tough opponent to make it two wins out of two in the Champions League Lazarov (9) and Karabatic (7) led the scoring and Pérez de Vargas once again shone between the posts

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.

Força Barça
Força Barça

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