Barça will play the final of the Champions League

He Barca has qualified for the Champions League final 2019-2020 by defeating Paris Saint Germain 37-32 in the first semifinal of the Final Four that began this Monday at the Lanxess Arena in the German city of Cologne. In this way, those of Xavi Pascual will fight for their tenth continental scepter. His rival will come out of the second semi-final, which will face German Kiel against Hungarian Veszprem on Monday.

The Barcelona block has been devastating in attack, especially Dika mem (8 points) and Aron Palmarsson (6), which were key along with the twelve stops of the Danish goal Kevin Möller. Opposite, despite the good performance of Vincent Gerard (13 stops) and the goals of Dylan Nahí (9) and Mikkel Hansen (7, 5 from penalties), the Parisians could not keep up with the rhythm of the Catalans.

The great novelty for Barça has been the presence in the call of Aron Palmarsson, he doubts until the last minute due to the injury to the patellar tendon in his left knee suffered in the last Asobal league match at the Bidasoa court. For the Icelander this Final to Four is very special because he will be the only player who has played it for the ninth time after having done it previously with Kiel, with whom he was champion in 2010 and 2012, and Veszprém.

On the French side, the last minute loss due to covid-19 of the Dutch central Luc Steins, replaced by himNikola Karabatic’s session, and Danish pivot Henrik Toft Hansen has further aggravated Raúl González’s problems in his team

Barça started a bit cold because Paris Saint Germain, with Nedim Remiló as the emergency center and the ‘cannon shots’ by Latvian Dainis Kristopans, went ahead on the scoreboard (4-7, m.8). But the Barça defense focused, Pascual changed Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas for Danish Kevin Möller in goal and with Dika Mem (6 goals in the first half) and the Slovenian Blaz Janc, they tied the contest (10-10, m. 17).

From there and with six stops by Möller from minute 19 to 28, Paris fell apart because Barça increased the pace and with a 5-0 run opened a clear gap (16-11, m.26). Alone isolated actions of Mikkel Hansen they managed to stop the bleeding at rest (18-14).

Though Raúl González tested height defenses with Kristopans, Syprzak and Hati in the center or ‘5-1’ with Viran Morros advanced, even placing Hansen by Remilí as central, he could not avoid the Barça effectiveness. At the beginning of the second half, two consecutive penalties saved by Gerard to Áleix Gómez (m.32 and 33) and the match accelerated.

PSG attacked with seven without a goalkeeper and Möller, from goal to goal, gave Barça’s first maximum advantage (23-17, min. 38). The French response came with a 0-3 through the young winger Dylan Nahi, on the backlash (24-21, m.41). Barça opened the gap again (26-21), through Timothey N’Guessan, but Naked, with his sixth goal, he cut differences again (27-24, m.45) and Xavi Pascual called for time out.

Raúl González kept the ‘seven’ in attack without a goalkeeper and two goals by Aitor Ariño on the counterattack and without a goalkeeper they extended the maximum Catalan advantage (33-26, m.52). The last gasp of the French did not come until they reached four goals again (33-29, m.54), because a new partial 3-0 for Barça left the clash materially sentenced (36-29, m.57).