Fertiberia lose to Bada Huesca in the second half

Fertiberia lost 23–19 in an evenly matched contest with two very different halves. In the first, the red-and-whites were ahead on the scoreboard throughout, with leads of up to five goals. In the second, however, the Huesca side adjusted and imposed a faster style that weakened Nogués’ excellent first-half defence.

In the first half, Fertiberia came out at the Palacio de los Deportes de Huesca determined to take both points back to Puerto Sagunto. They began with a 1–3 run, with Franzini making saves from goal at over 58% efficiency, solid defensive blocks and Corzo’s unstoppable attacking play. However, the red-and-whites began to concede possession in attack through mistakes, which Bada Huesca exploited to counter-attack and level the score. Querín, Pozzer and Chen responded to make it 3–7, which remained the score until the 20th minute. From then on, the home side reacted and went into half-time 8–10 down.

After the interval, Huesca were determined to keep the points at home and secure their sixth consecutive victory, and six minutes into the half they levelled the score again. Franzini continued to make saves and the red-and-whites held firm until Bada Huesca took advantage of the red-and-whites’ suspensions and turned the score around in the 13th minute. The match became a rapid exchange of goals, and Nogués tried to halt the home side’s momentum with a timeout. But the red-and-white response never came.

After the match, Valencian coach Vicent Nogués assessed the game and explained: ‘We played a good first half, especially defensively; the team were very good. Roney also did his job in goal, and we went into the break with a smaller margin than we should have had to win the match. In the second half we received many suspensions, which Huesca took advantage of to get back into the game. At that point our attack faded; we disappeared. Huesca began to live off our attacking mistakes and built a sufficient lead to win the match’.

Regarding the team’s good defensive work, especially in the first half, the red-and-white coach said: ‘The team are defending very well. We are not a very spectacular defence when it comes to steals, breaking out and so on, but the team are highly effective and efficient. Their defensive work pays off, and both the other day against Anaitasuna and today they were very good. Gonzalo is a star; beyond what he contributes himself, he makes everyone around him defend better, and his arrival has been fundamental to making the defence work so well’.

‘I think there were three situations involving suspensions that, in my view, were not particularly rigorous. Huesca took advantage of them, while we did not know how to take advantage of theirs. In the end, it is not the referee who scores the goals; the team that took advantage of them and won the match was Huesca. I have no objection; I think they knew how to exploit them. We failed to make use of the good defence we had played to counter-attack more. I think all of that decided the match’, coach Vicent Nogués concluded.

Match details

Bada Huesca: Montoya (1), Carmona (6), Alexandre, Adrià Pérez (2), Miguel Augusto, Oleksandr, Marcelo, Oier García (3), Rodrigo Benites (4), Janez, Sergio Pérez (5), Miguel Malo (1), Joan Pinto, Arguillas.

Fertiberia Balonmano Puerto Sagunto: Pau, Miralles, Mirallave, Querín (4), Alex Gil, Camacho, Carou, Dani Martínez, Corzo (4), Lucas Aizen, Toni Alegre, Roney, Chen (7), Bruno Kozina (3), Alex Pozzer (1).

Scores by period: 1–3, 2–3, 3–6, 3–7, 5–8, 8–10, 10–11, 13–13, 17–16, 20–18, 22–18, 23–19.

Translation produced using artificial intelligence.