Esteban Salinas started when there was still a stretch of the game to play, almost seven minutes. He, the horny one on the team, the one who uncorks the most smiles, the one who messes with everyone the most and the one who gets the jokes because he fits in like no one else, began to cry. The tears, of emotion and happiness, were contagious, because when the match ended, the Fraikin Granollers players metaphorically passed their handkerchiefs to blow their noses, standing on the Flensburg court, receiving warm applause from the rival and even from the opposing fans. It was hard to believe but Granollers, a modest team where there are because it costs them horrors to reach the end of the month to the point that they have, for example, the shortest squad in the Asobal League, had just done the machada. A feat to remember because they had eliminated the powerful German team (27-35), which, to make matters worse, will host the Final Four of the European League -the second continental competition- on May 27 and 28. It is the second time in its history that it has achieved this – the first was in 2016 and it came third – and it will face Füchse Berlin and Göppingen, also German, as well as French Montpellier.
Although he traveled with the idea of fighting and something else, because if something characterizes this group it is that they do not give up in the face of adversity -many of them work or study something else because the player’s salary is not enough-, Granollers knew that the undertaking would not be easy. Even more so after losing in the first leg (30-31) at home. But the coach Antonio Rama, who always has everything ready -does double video sessions before each match- and the motivation of some players who know that Granollers is a springboard for better contracts, in addition to the excellent fellowship in the dressing room, He made the game go round. This was explained right off the bat, because from the beginning the counter added faster in the Freikin box. Merit for all, but with Rangel standing out as always in goal -he’s leaving next year-, with the veteran and captain Antonio García shooting the rival (9 goals), as well as the talented Yusuf Faruk (another nine goals), and the vision of the young Reguard. A prize show.
“Reaching the round of 16 would be for success”, they deciphered from the Freikin board of directors a couple of months ago. Because they knew about the difficulty and because from then on the team could monetize the competition. They did it. But not only that, because in the round of 16 they already overcame the hard obstacle of the Danish Skanderborg-Aarhus, who in the first leg went as far as eight goals ahead. He finished with an income of two and then with the machada of the Rama team. Although few like last night, against the host, a rival who is fighting for the Bundesliga, with five world champions and the MVP of the last European Championship in their ranks. It was dreaming But Fraikin has already shown that it has a license, second in the Asobal League and in the Final Four of the EHL Europa League.
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