Handball. champions The Catalans, qualified for the quarters, seek to certify first place with two days left
Barça is within touching distance of its goal of finishing first in Group B of the Champions League and today it has a golden opportunity if it manages to score on the difficult court of Magdeburg in Germany (8.45 p.m., 3Cat). The Catalans are the leaders with 22 points, two more than Magdeburg and four more than the Hungarian Telekom Vesprem. The Catalans are already guaranteed one of the first two places, but they want to secure first place to have a more favorable crossing in the qualifiers. Being first or second in the league implies direct access to the quarter-finals. In the second leg played at the Palau, Barça demolished Magdeburg by twelve goals (32-20) in one of their best games of the season. The Catalans will finish the league against Montpellier (March 7), a match that could have no significance. Magdeburg has been one of the rivals that has caused the most problems for Carlos Ortega’s Barça because it defeated them in three consecutive competitions: the finals of the Club World Cup in 2021 and 2022 and the semi-final of the Champions League in 2023.
Ortega: “We must be calm”
Carlos Ortega, Barça’s coach, said yesterday that they know very well what it’s like to play on Magdeburg’s field: “We suffered very hard defeats against them and even though it’s a very complicated track we want to be first and the fastest way is to score there. ” Ortega praised their game: “They have a very solid defense and a spectacular counterattack and in positional attack they make good entries and provoke many penalties.” Finally, Ortega called for serenity: “They play to the limit of the passive and even if you defend well the entire play, sometimes they score a goal and make you go into a rut, we have to be calm.”
