Taking an early three-goal advantage, the Blaugranas were able to count on their defence and Emil Nielsen’s saves to make the difference even bigger before the break. Avoiding conceding any goals for 12 minutes, they were already ahead by six at half-time.
The Nielsen show did not stop after the break, as the EHF EURO 2024 silver medallist added seven saves to his tally to help his team increase their advantage even further. Despite Carlos Ortega making the most of the last minutes and rotating his bench, Barça remained firmly in control until the final whistle.
SEMI-FINAL
Barça (ESP) vs THW Kiel (GER) 30:18 (15:9)
- Barça took a three-goal advantage within the first two minutes, but Kiel quickly reacted and, thanks to a 3:0 series, made the score even in the seventh minute
- with Nielsen making a miracle between the posts, Barça reclaimed the upper hand and took the first four-goal advantage of the evening in the 22nd minute, after Aitor Ariño scored into the empty goal
- Barça created a lead of eight goals in the 33rd minute, before Kiel scored four in a row to come back within four five minutes later
- that was not enough though, as Barça kept pushing, propelled by their defensive power and their rotations, to take their biggest advantage of 13 goals in the 56th minute
- scoring only 18 goals, THW Kiel now have the new record for fewest goals scored in a single match at the EHF FINAL4 Men
- Barça fell just one goal short of the biggest win at the EHF FINAL4 Men — a record they had set themselves in 2021 when they cruised to the title with a 36:23 win against Aalborg
Emil Nielsen the dream-crusher strikes again
A non-handball fan might look at him and wonder who the youngster standing between Barça’s posts is, but on Saturday night, Nielsen proved again that he is one of the best goalkeepers in the world, if not the best. His performance against THW Kiel, especially in the first half, was incredible.
Nielsen’s statistics in the first half — eight saves at a rate of 50 per cent — do not clearly reflect the impact he had on the game, impressive though the figures were. Niclas Ekberg, Rune Dahmke, Eric Johansson — none of the THW Kiel players were able to win the mind games Nielsen played, very much like all other players in the other EHF Champions League since the beginning of the season.
I am happy with the result, you have to be when you win the semi-final by 12. Our defence and goalkeepers were unbelievable. However, I am not 100% satisfied with our attack. Sometimes we made the same mistakes three times in a row. But you have to be happy, of course. Tomorrow will be another match, and we have not done anything yet. We have taken one more step towards the title, now we are so close and so far at the same time.
It hurts but really, we did not deserve to win. We missed too many open shots right from the start, Emil Nielsen was fantastic and we had such a tough time against him. It’s a very bad moment for us right now, definitely not what we expected. But Barça has the right attitude, the best goalkeeper, the best defence. And while we might have pretended at some point that we had the chance, they really got the upper hand early and we were not able to turn things over.
