Barcelona players celebrate with the IHF Super Globe trophy after beating HSV Hamburg in the final at Al Gharafa Indoor Hall yesterday. PICTURE: Anas Khalid
Barcelona Intersport defeated HSV Hamburg 27-25 to win the IHF Super Globe yesterday at the Al Gharafa Indoor Hall yesterday.
It was also a sweet revenge for the Spaniards, who were beaten by the German side in the final of the Euopean Championship in June this year. Victor Thomas scored five times, opening the scoring in the second minute and later wrapping up the victory for the eight-time European champions via a penalty stroke in the last minutes of the game.
“We’re delighted. It was a repeat of the European Championship final, but I am more satisfied today as we have worked hard to win the Super Globe, especially against a good team like Hamburg,” Barcelona coach Xavier Pascual said.
It was Barcelona’s maiden Super Globe title win as they came into the tournament as a replacement for the last time winners Atletico Madrid.
Barcelona forged ahead to a 12-9 lead in the middle of the first half and led by two goals (15-13) at the break. Though the Spaniards failed to convert two-penalty shots in the last 10 minutes of the game, they maintained their two-goal lead till the end of the match courtesy some fine defence.
Nikola Karabatic and Lazarob Kiril netted four goals each for Barcelona. Hans Lindberg with seven strikes was the top scorer for Hamburg, while Kentin Mahe slammed four goals.
Qatar’s wildcard entrant El Jaish finished third defeating Tunisian club Etoile Sportive du Sahel 27-20 in the playoff. Other Qatar clubs, Asian Champions Rayyan and hosts Sadd, won their placement matches to finish fifth and seventh. Jaish received $150,000 in prize money.
The armymen set a brisk pace and led the first half 13-8. They continued to press the opponents in the second session, even as the African team managed to raise their game a notch with their defence clicking better post the break. However, Jaish remained solid extending the gap by three straight goals from 16:12 to a decisive 19:12 in the 45th minute and maintained seven- to eight-goal difference until the final stage of the game.
Selim Hedoui, who was declared best player of the tournament, netted eight goals for the winners, while Hassan Rabie pitched in with four. Ali Zeinelabedin scored six goals for Sahel.
“I am very happy with performance of my team because it’s always difficult to play a third place play-off game just after the semifinals. It was a good tournament for us as we finished third. I am really proud of my players, who deserve the podium finish here,” Jaish coach Kamel Akkeb said.
In a closely-fought match Rayyan edged past Pan-Amercian champions Taubate from Brazil 30-29, while
Sadd easily defeated Sydney Univercity 32-19. Taubate's Maik Santos was declared the best goalkeeper of the event.
“We needed to win today, as we wanted to finish the tournament successfully. After we had lost closely against Hamburg in the final encounter of the preliminary round we had a clear break in our performance level. But we take some good points from the Super Globe for building our new team for the future,” Sadd coach Arrouche Lakhdar said.
“It was mostly a good game of our team. In general, we took useful experience from this tournament, which will help us to improve in the upcoming competitions,” Sadd player Abdulla Alghamdi said.
Sydney University coach Philipp Enders said: “In the first 10 to 15 minutes we showed an extremely amateur performance – though we are amateurs, this was nothing. I was very disappointed, but then we clearly improved until the break, as we played how we wanted to. In the second half, everybody saw that our team had problems having five matches in six days, as they were completely tired.”
“I am very disappointed but we improved during the week in Doha and hope that we will manage to return next year,” Sydney University player said Eric Charpentier.
