Who will win the second Super Globe title? Barcelona is the big favourite

“The winner takes it all! This successful song from the former Swedish pop heroes ABBA is not the official anthem of the IHF Super Globe. But the lyrics could be the official song of the finalists. FC Barcelona/Spain and Al-Sadd Sports Club from Doha/Qatar will fight in the final of the IHF Super Globe 2014 not only for the first place, title and trophy. They fight also for 400.000 $ price money.

The favourite is th European  team. Barcelona won all four matches sovereignly so far. Their first match in the preliminary round was already against Al-Sadd which they had won by 34:25. “But we have to forget it,” Nikola Karabatic resumed. “The final is another match.” The French is the superstar of the Catalonian club and was a little bit surprised about his final competitor. “We have to learn that nothing is impossible. Not in a semi-final and also not in a final. We have to concentrate 100%. But if we can play on our normal level it will be a hard job to beat us.”  

Mongi Bananni, coach of host Al-Sadd emits the favourite role in Barcelona: “The Spanish team is perhaps the best of the world. We are underdogs. But we are in swing after our victory against Flensburg-Handewitt.”

But Al-Sadd entered the final and is not an inexperienced Super Globe finalist. They played already the final in 2010. One player from Barcelona could be a triple Super Globe winner: Super-shooter Kiril Lazarov won the title with the Spanish Champions Athletico Madrid and FC Barcelona 2012 and 2013 – 2014 could be the real “Hattrick”. But Lazarov had lost already two finals – 2011 with Ciudad Real (ESP) and one year before with Al-Sadd. And the Macedonian shooter knows that the title “The winner takes it all” is not really correct. 2010 he was honoured as Most Valuable Player (MVP) and had to went home with a big cup as extra luggage.