Overview match FC Barcelona Lassa – Orlen Wisla Plock
When we talk about VELUX EHF Champions League matches we expect tough games and it was exactly what became of last Saturday (17/02/2018) between FC Barcelona Lassa and Orlen Wisla Plock on the round 12 of the group phase. Playing in Barcelona with an amazing atmosphere, the Spaniards beat the Poles by the difference of 1 goal 28:27(14:15). However, why that happened? Efficient attacks, strong defenses, Featured players? Let’s discuss about it.
First of all, looking for the attack efficiency both teams had pretty much the same, Barcelona Lassa 80% and Wisla Plock 79%, so the answer for the question why the Spanish team won is not on this number. On the other hand, looking for the defense, it is clear some differences, for Barcelona was possible to see more options during the game. Both teams started playing 6:0, but the Polish defense works more against the player with the ball and the Spanish works against the ball, but also in a sequence, with players going up and down looking the ball and the players, making the attack more difficult, as we can see in the end of the first half with Victor Tomas e Viran Morros playing as second defenders.
Keeping looking at the defense, we have to say that the change of the defensive system that Xavi Pascual made ( 6:0 for 5:1) has changed the game. Playing with Ariño in front of the defense created some problems for Piotr Przybecki, who could have tried to play 7 against 6, but he made the option to play trying to open the center of the defense. It’s true that the 5:1 recovered some goals with successful actions, however Gonzalo Peres de Vargas made the difference being decisive in key moments of the match.
At last but not least, watching the match paying attention to the coaches’ attitudes and the timeouts we can see a big difference. Barcelona Lassa played a long time losing the match, but Xavi was showing to the players that they have to stay calm, that’s been clear in his posture also speaking slowly during time outs asking for patience. On the other side Piotr was all the time moving himself, walking, talking fast, at 16 minutes and 18 seconds of the second half, the polish called a time out right after the change for 5:1 by Barcelona Lassa, at that point the score was 23 for Wisla and 21 for Barcelona, but 5 minutes later the score was 24 against 24, in other words the time out didn’t solve the problems and the game become to an end with the 2 points for FC Barcelona Lassa.
Photo by Velux EHF Champions League
