Group A, Day 3: Zodiac CNA Barceloneta (ESP) v Waspo 98 Hannover (GER) 20-5
There were significant differences between the sides – in all aspect of the game. First of all, in the speed of all moves, either in attack or in defence, the Spaniards were absolutely superior, and it was enough to decide the outcome right away in the first quarter.
The hosts stormed to a 7-1 lead, the Germans couldn’t show any signs of resistance. In the first half, one might have the feeling that Barceloneta would score whenever their players wish to. The young German goalie Kevin Goetz was little help to his team – though the defenders weren’t helping him that much either. He had a single save in the first period, though he faced eight shots, while at the other end only two balls were at least on target.
Barceloneta did what the team was best at – launched counter after counter, and their rivals were unable to cope with their dynamic game. Nothing really changed in the second period, the number of shots on goal stood 15-6 at halftime, so the 13-4 partial score somewhat even favoured Waspo.
The Spanish switched back gears for the third, netted only two more (hit 7 and 6 respectively in the first two periods), but Hannover couldn’t really recover from the initial shock. And in the fourth the Spaniards pushed a bit more and netted five goals – the number of shots on goal was telling at the end: 23-11.
For sure, even though coach Karsten Seehafer brought in some quality foreigners once more, but after the big reshuffle – half of the team left in the summer – Waspo need time to get back to the level once this club had been in the previous years when they had appeared in three straight Final Eights. Now, after losing their third match, they face a mountain to climb if they wish to have a slim hope to qualify. On contrary, Barceloneta offered a brilliant performance, after two fine away wins they entertained the home crowd with some beautiful plays and stopped at 20 goals at the end.
How they saw it
Elvis Fatovic, coach, Barceloneta
“The most important was the start of the game. We knew that Hannover might have been tired after the German Super Cup and they also missed one of their key players, so we wanted to start with high speed and we did everything we wanted and when we play like this, it’s hard to keep up with us. It was a great win but next week we face Radnicki, that is a very important game for us.”
Karsten Seehofer, coach, Hannover
“It was a terrible… A tsunami came towards us and we were not able to do anything, we could not handle the pressure from Barceloneta and so it ended like this, really terrible.”
