Kielce win in Barcelona!

Even though now Kielce can celebrate, the first part of the match wasn’t looking very promising for them. The very first minutes were tight but already after 4 minutes Barcelona forged ahead. Kielce had to work very hard to break through their opponents’ defence while Barcelona didn’t even have to try breaking through because they scored from the back, undisturbed by the defenders. Polish team couldn’t handle Lazarov and after 7 minutes they were behind with 4 goals (2:6). Kielce style seemed to be improving but the distance wasn’t changing much; Szmal and five penalty throws might have helped to prevent the gap from growing and Barcelona was keeping the 3-4 goal lead. In the last minute they had their chance to be ahead by 5 goals but Kielce got the ball and in 5 seconds or so Tobias Reichmann managed to run through the court and got a buzzer beater that made the result 19:16 for Barca.

In the second half it was Kielce that forged ahead. Despite a couple of losses and mistakes, they got back into the game in the 38. minute (22:22). Kielce significantly improved their defence so Barcelona couldn’t construct their attacks as easily as in the first half; what is more, they weren’t doing too well in defence either as Kielce scored five times in a row and from 22:20 for Barca in 36. minute, the result changed to 22:25 in the 44. minute. However, this worse performance of the hosts ended after nearly 10 minutes as with 7 minutes to go, Jallouz equalised at 29:29. The game stayed tight until the very end; finally in the 59. minute Kielce gained 2-goal lead (33:31) and Barcelona didn’t manage to change this result until the final whistle.