Fertiberia beaten by BM Logroño

Fertiberia Balonmano Puerto Sagunto lost 19–36 to a team from another level, Balonmano Logroño. The La Rioja side were far superior from start to finish and, after overwhelming Nogués's team in the first half, the match proved impossible to turn around. The red-and-whites have now faced two formidable league opponents; it is time to focus on the next round. On Saturday, they must win away against a rival from their own league, Frigoríficos Morrazo.

The start of the match was disastrous. The red-and-whites were completely nullified in attack, allowing Logroño to put almost all their shots past the goalkeeper. From the 15th minute onwards, they began to wake up. In attack, Leo Querín looked to level the score, while Pozzer tried from the pivot, but Sánchez-Migallón and Inmanol gave him no room. Logroño allowed no margin for error under a Balenciaga who read Nogués's side's weak points very well on the court. Tello and Óscar García provided some fresh impetus, but even that was not enough. They went into half-time 8–17 down.

After the interval, the red-and-whites came out with a different attitude, but it made little difference. The first-half deficit was simply too large to overturn. The bright spot of the match was Guillermo Martínez's debut and a European-class crowd who cheered the team until the final minute.

At the end of the match, coach Vicent Nogués said “The match did not go as expected. It got away from us very early. We lacked solidity in defence and were sluggish in attack, which allowed them to catch us on the counter-attack and score very easily. At home, we have to try to keep teams to between 20 and 25 goals, and they had almost 17 by half-time, so it is impossible to win a match like that.”

“In the first half we made many shooting errors and lost the ball repeatedly through unforced errors. Those mistakes were exploited very well by a high-quality team such as BM Logroño,” he said regarding the first half.

“In the second half we were a little more dynamic; they also eased off a little because the score was already quite emphatic. But we came onto the court with a little more joy, and the feeling was somewhat different. However, we are not happy because we did not expect to lose the match by such a margin. Now we have to think about next week, forget what has happened and focus on the new week. Saturday's match in Cangas is one of the places where we should be able to pick up points. We need a change of attitude and mindset for that to happen,” Nogués concluded.

MATCH DETAILS:

Fertiberia BM Puerto Sagunto: Guillermo Martínez, Jaka Spiljak, Nacho Mirallave (2), Leo Querín (2), Marcos Dorado, Camacho, Adrián Ribes, Corzo (2), Iñigo Celorrio (2), Toni Alegre (2), Dija Cruz (3), Tello (1), Óscar García (1), Ángel López Ruíz, Alex Pozzer (4).

BM Logroño: Jorge Pérez, Miguel Sánchez, Dapiran (7), Balenciaga (3), Kusan (5), James Eduard (1), Patrik, Ceretta (2), Moreira (6), Kikik (6), Sergey, Eduardo Ortiz, Edu Cadarso (1), David Cadarso, Inmanol (2), Rudolph.

Scores by period: 0–2, 1–7, 3–10, 4–13, 6–15, 8–17, 10–21, 12–23, 17–28, 17–30, 18–34, 19–36

 Referees: Alberto Macías de Paz and Ernesto Ruiz Vergara. Marcos and Tello of Fertiberia BM Puerto Sagunto were given two-minute exclusions. Kusan of BM Logroño was also given two two-minute exclusions.

Translation produced using artificial intelligence.