In a week without activity due to the commitments of the national teams and which is also the previous one to the Copa del Rey that will be played next week in Antequera with Barça as champion of the last eight editions, this Thursday the azulgrana club has announced a friendly for next June 11 at home on the track of the historic Celje Slovenian.
With the Asobal League already finished by then (the last day will be played on the last weekend of May) and with the quarterfinals of the Champions League against the winner of the round of 16 duel between Hungarian Pick Szeged and SG Flensburg- Handewitt scheduled for days 11 and 12 (the outward leg) and 18 and 19 (the return leg), the team led by Carlos Ortega would have an excellent litmus test in that meeting case of qualifying for a Final Four that will be played on June 18 and 19 in the traditional setting of the Lanxess Arena in Cologne.
This friendly was stipulated as one of the parts of the transfer operation that led to the Slovenian Domen Makuc to the Barça from Celje in the summer of 2020 on a contract for four seasons, of which he still has to complete the last two and a half.
Ortega expects another step forward from Makuc
| EFE
Signed at the age of 20 at the time, he is the replacement for Croatian Luka Cindric in the central position and continues to grow in offensive facets such as one-on-one or percussion to create spaces or take advantage of those that are generated for him, but he still has a lot of room for improvement when it comes to directing the team or controlling the pace of the matches.
In fact, Makuc already had the opportunity to face Celje last season in the group stage of the Champions League in a double duel that was especially emotional for him, especially the match played at the Zlatorog Arena in which he also completed a remarkable performance with five goals (29-32).
Domen Makuc, in his stage in the Slovenian Celje
| EFE
As long as they managed to make that classification come true, which would allow them to defend the title in Cologne with the hypothetical goal of becoming the first team to ‘repeat’ at Lanxess, the Barcelona team would also have another important test in the Asobal Cup that will take place on June 4 and 5 still waiting for the venue and in which it will try to achieve the title for the eleventh edition in a row.