Barça, the only undefeated team in the Champions League, sweeps away its black beast

Carlos Ortega’s Barça can boast of being the only undefeated team in the Champions League. Six victories in six games illustrate the immaculate trajectory of the Blaugrana, who got rid of Magdeburg by playing the roller at the Palau, in the duel of the last two European champions.

Aleix Gómez, with 8 goals, and Emil Nielsen, with 8 saves in the first half, were the best of the Barcelona fans.

The black beast that has fallen into disrepair

A Magdeburg in crisis with only 3 points out of a possible 10 presented itself as a dangerous rival, but Barça hit them 6-2 at the start

SC Magdeburg, one of the transatlantic champions of the Champions League (they were the penultimate champion, after eliminating the Blaugrana in the semifinals), had always choked Barça. In fact, he was the most recurring bête noire of the Blaugrana team of the Carlos Ortega era, which had only managed to win once (32-30 against Palau in last year’s league) in five duels against the Germans.

But this time Magdeburg visited the Blaugrana coliseum immersed in a slump in results (only 3 out of 10 possible points) that plunged them into an emergency to qualify and made them a more dangerous rival, despite the loss of Felix Claar. In theory.

In theory, because Barça ignored him from the start with an intimidating 5-2 start at 7 minutes, thanks to the combined action of Petar Cikusa – the centre-back preferred by Ortega as a starter – and Aleix Gómez, authors of the five goals.

Without discrediting Emil Nielsen, who had three stops in that set. Mem rounded the set to 6-2 to motivate the Germans’ first timeout at 11 minutes.

Key parts

Barça recovered from a small slump (9-8) with goals from Dika Mem and saves from Nielsen (8 in the first half)

With the exception of a threatening approach (Weber’s 9-8 at 20 minutes), Barça had the score and the game under control. He recovered from the slump – more due to the exclusion of N’Guessan than due to disconnection – with the quick and effective reaction of Dika Mem with two goals in a row, and later with the effectiveness of Richardson from 7 meters, which led to a maximum income of 6 goals (16-10) just before the break (16-11). Nielsen lowered the blinds and made 8 saves in the first half, which concluded with a reassuring 16-11.

Second half

Barça reached a 7-goal advantage (21-14) and gave themselves to the spectacle against a Magdeburg that wanted to minimize the disaster

In the second half, Ortega moved the bench to balance his strength, but his team did not slow down thanks to the quality and breadth of their wardrobe. N’Guessan had the maximum difference at 7 goals (21-14 at 38m) and Barça had fun with spectacular plays, such as Ariño’s 25-18 finishing off a fly assisted by Aleix Gómez.

The 2,552 spectators at the Palau enjoyed the show time of Ortega’s players, who had the game resolved with a quarter of an hour left. Between Aleix Gómez (8 goals) and Aitor Ariño (5) they were in charge of maintaining the distance of 5-7 goals and avoiding a scare in the last minutes against a Magdeburg that was already thinking more about the Bundesliga than about a miracle at the Palau.