Beams and Rails 2
Telecable Gijon 3
Beams and Rails: Julia Vilarrasa, Galla Solé, Marta Borrás, Erika Ghirardello and María Igualada. Julia Vidal and Rocío Ramón also played.
Telecable Gijon: Fernanda Hidalgo, Natasha Lee, Marta Piquero, Nuria Almeida and Sara Roces. Ana Catarina and Rebeca González also played.
Goals: 0-1, min.2: Sara Roces. 1-1, min.14: Erika Ghiraldello. 2-1, min.21: María Igualada. 2-2, min.48: Nuria Almeida and 2-3, min.50: Sara Roces.
Referee: Oriol Casabella.
Telecable Gijón suffered the unspeakable to win on the Bigues i Riells court in a match in which the Catalans had much more at stake than the Gijóns, who arrived at the match having mathematically ensured their presence in the play-off for the title.
The game began with high pressure from Telecable Gijón, who controlled the first minutes of the game in which they managed to take the lead when Sara Roces finished off a powerful shot from distance by Natasha Lee. But the match was a give and take because Bigues i Riells had a lot at stake in this match and at no time did it collapse. On the contrary, their arrivals were very dangerous. The first notice was given by Marta Borrás in a post shot. The intensity was great on both sides and as a result there were several blows, the first received by Sara Roces in the first seconds and then two blows to the face of María Igualada, fortunately without consequence for any. Telecable did not take advantage of two clear situations against Julia Vilarrasa’s goal, first by Sara Roces and then by Ana Catarina and ended up paying the consequences. In a counter, Bigues i Riells managed to equalize when Ghirardello touched a shot from Solé and shortly after in a personal move María Igualada put her team ahead. The last minutes of the first half were dominated by Catalans.
Telecable came out in the second half ready to turn the score around and subjected the Bigues i Riells goalkeeper to a continuous barrage of shots from all positions, but Vilarrasa responded with great interventions. The minutes went by in the midst of Gijón’s dominance and with the Catalans trying to make long plays when they had the ball or looking to surprise when they saw the opportunity because the Gijón women were practically focused on the pressure on the opposite court.
In one of those actions, the referee signaled a direct foul against Telecable, but Fernanda Hidalgo stopped the shot from María Igualada, preventing the 3-1 scoreline.
When everything seemed lost, Telecable Gijón managed to turn the result around in the last minute of the game. First it was a distant shot by Nuria Almeida and when there were barely six seconds left to go Sara Roces scored the winning goal in the face of the despair of the home team, who caressed victory.
Telecable now has just 48 hours to prepare for the first leg of the quarterfinals of the Europa League. It will be on Saturday at the Cerdanyola stadium.