Preview EHF Champions League Final: Barcelona – Kiel

Barrufet or Klein – who will write history?

Ten years after the “eternal rivals” met for the first time in an EHF Champions League final, THW Kiel and FC Barcelona meet again in the final clash of the first ever EHF FINAL4 in Cologne today. For Kiel it’s the fourth consecutive EHF Champions League final, for Barca in total their tenth EHF Champions League final.

One of two special players will write history: Barcelona goalkeeper legend David Barrufet or Kiels left winger Dominik Klein. Barrufet will be able to win his seventh EHF Champions League title in the last match of his outstanding career – that would make him the most successful player ever, including one title in the Champion’s Cup. The Klein family could win two European Cup titles in one week. Last Sunday Dominik Klein’s wife Isabel won the Challenge Cup with her club Buxtehuder SV.

After VfL Gummersbach won the Cup Winner’s Cup and TBV Lemgo won the EHF Cup, a Kiel victory today would let us see all three major European Cups being won by German clubs this year – like in 2007.

Today’s final is the clash of the best teams of this season: In 15 matches before the final Kiel and Barcelona only lost one game each – to each another in the Group Phase! Barcelona won in Kiel, Kiel in Barcelona, and additionally both had one draw in Kolding.

If the Catalans win today it’s the 13th title for a Spanish team, if THW raise the trophy, it’s the third EHF Champions League title for a German team.

The history of the duels Barcelona – Kiel is very long. In 2000 the Catalans won the EHF Champions League finals with a very close distance against THW. One year later Barcelona again was the final destination for Kiel, as the Germans were eliminated in the semis of the EHF Champions League. In 2002 Kiel won against Barca for the first time ever – in the finals of the EHF Cup, three years later the Germans lost the CL quarterfinals against the Catalans. The 41:31 for Kiel in the first leg of the EHF Champions League semis in 2008 was the clearest ever victory in this duel. Even as Barca won the second leg on home soil 44:37, Kiel reached the finals.

The very special fact in this duel: In the first ten matches each team always won on home soil and lost the away match. This series was cut in 2009, as Kiel won 31:27 at Palau Blaugrana in the group phase. THW reached the finals again, Barcelona was out of the race for the semis. In the current season Barcelona then took their first ever victory in Kiel (32:30), but had lost the home match again.

History is one thing, the current situation another. It might be a disadvantage for the Germans today that players like Zeitz and Jicha are injured after the very intense semi against Ciudad Real (29:27). Kiel had to go put in a lot of effort to win this match. “I hope we still have enough power,” Klein said, “but we want be carried away by the waves of atmosphere in the LANXESS Arena.” The bigger crowd could – on the other hand – be an important advantage for THW.

Normally Barcelona should be fresher for the final. The semi against Chekhov (34:27) was decided early, coach Xavi Pascual could substitute very much, the key players saved their power. “We don’t care, what team we’ll meet in the final - the most important thing is that we win this title,” Joachim Boldsen said. For the Dane the final is the last match for Barca, and he knows Kiel well, as he played for SG Flensburg before. In 2007 he played the EHF Champions League final against Kiel – and THW won the EHF Champions League title for the one and only time.

Text: Björn Pazen

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