Rarely has a final has been more intense than in the first part of the match where Emil Nielsen was absolutely suberb, saving five of the first seven shots he faced, fueling a Veszprém run which proved to be decisive and the backbone of their win.
The Hungarian side went on an 8-1 run to take a 9-3 lead after only nine minutes, with six different players scoring at least one goal. And while Barcelona managed to muster a comeback and put some pressure on Veszprém, their chances were slowly going into thin air.
Having a stellar team at his disposal, coach Xavi Pascual, who secured his seventh title at the IHF Men’s Club World Championship, managed his team to perfection, changing players at exactly the right time and continuing to provide a well-balanced attack.
Veszprém’s players delivered, with a perfectly rounded performance, which saw them take a six-goal lead at the break, 22-16, while also scoring the largest number of goals in the first half of the final in the competition.
Barcelona managed to cut the lead to only two goals, 14-16. But seven minutes later, Veszprém had scored another nine goals to Barcelona’s four, being impossible to stop in attack.
Barcelona’s coach, Antonio Carlos Ortega, called his second team time-out after 39 minutes, when Hugo Descat and Nedim Remili already had five goals each, and Veszprém led by a staggering nine-goal margin, 30-21.
No final of the IHF Men’s Club World Championship had previously finished with a larger difference than eight goals, with the record set by FC Barcelona in their 34-26 win against Qatari side Al-Sadd in 2014. This time around, it was nine goals.