November 2022

Jug Adriatic Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO) v CN Marseille (FRA) 14-9 Andrija Prlainovic’s fine shot from the perimeter kicked off the party, Marko Zuvela equalised right away from an extra, but soon the French took the upper hand. It was Croatian Ante Vukicevic who netted two fine goals lately in the opening period to give the French a 2-4 lead, despite Jug managed to kill two man-downs earlier. A fine save also prevented them from pulling one back before the first break. It came soon, though, Zuvela converted a penalty, but Prlainovic also was on target in a 6 on 5. Loren Fatovic netted an extra from the next possession for 4-5 and soon it was even as Goran Grgujevic’s magnificent backhander hit the back of the net. A great steal denied the French in their man-up, however, later they earned a penalty during the next extra and Serbian double Olympic gold medallist Prlainovic sent it home to regain the lead.  Still, the Croats also had a veteran Olympic champ on board and Maro Jokovic’s magical left did some damage in the last two minutes of the first half. First, he blasted one from an unusual position, from the leftback’s spot, then defenders didn’t pay too much attention to him while he approached the goal, and he sent a fierce shot to the net. It was a five-goal rally from the hosts in the second period, so they could turn into the third with a 7-6 advantage. After a quick exchange of man-up goals, Jug had a chance to double their lead, but they couldn’t make their man-up after a time-out – unlike Marseille, where the time-out helped to set up Ugo Crousillat who had a clear shot and the leftie didn’t make any mistake. However, soon the Croats started rolling while the French – a bit unexpectedly – virtually faded from the scene. Franko Lazic put away a man-up, then Jokovic let the ball fly once more from the distance, so Jug had the two-goal lead finally. And soon the gap grew bigger, Fatovic netted another man-up, then Toni Mozara finished off a counter and finally the Jug defence easily neutralised a man-down to crown their 4-0 run. That was decisive – and to start the last period in style, another French man-up was denied while Jokovic netted his fourth (all from action!), at 13-8 was inevitable that there would be no way back for Marseille. There was not indeed, the French could score one more, Prlainovic hit his fifth, though it was rather a gift from the hosts as their lazy backpass found the Serb unguarded. Marseille’s ‘real’ attacks didn’t work any longer, the visitors wasted two more man-ups while Grgurevic put away the last one to conclude Jug’s outstanding 6-1 rush after 8-8.  How they saw it Vjekoslav Kobescak, coach, Jug It was a tough match and a great performance from our side. Again, we started with a bit low energy level, we were weak in defence. Then we raised our level, our defence tightened, and we started to make good decisions in attack. Jokovic scored few goals to further lift the team’s morale so I should say that we played the last two quarters extremely well. We hoped for a win but didn’t expect such margin, so I’m really satisfied.” Milos Scepanovic, coach, Marseille „We started the game really well, however, it did not take much time for Jug to solve the problems they had at the beginning. We tried to re-organise our defence, but our man-up and man-down didn’t go well at all after a while. We couldn’t manage to score enough to stay in the game for long enough. Jug played with discipline and created more and more problems for us.”

Radnicki Kragujevac (SRB) v Waspo 98 Hannover (GER) 13-12 Andrija Basic’s action shot in the 20th second kicked off the shooting parade, then the hosts hit back with three in a row in a span of 84 seconds. It didn’t crack the Germans, their Croats, Hrvoje Benic and Basic equalised in a minute for 3-3. However, the Serbs had the last laugh, rather laughs still in the action-packed opening period as they added two more in the last 50 seconds for a 5-3 lead. And the storm continued in the second, two more distant blasts from the first two possessions gave Radnicki a commanding 7-3 lead. Hannover needed five minutes to recover from the 4-0 shock but even though they pulled one back, Marko Radulovic netted two more in 56 seconds to make it 9-4, and Radnicki seemed to be set to sail away with an easy win. Perhaps the home players were convinced of that while the Germans had always been famous for keep on fighting. Including their Croatians who netted three in a row in three minutes, and all of sudden the excitements were back at 9-7. Not so long, though, Nemanja Stanojevic scored from close range as the ball fell into his hand after a fine German block in a man-down. Then Hannover missed a crucial extra and despite they denied two 6 on 5s, Radulovic scored one more from a counter with 0:04 on the clock for 11-7. Again, Radnicki’s ship seemed to reach safe waters. Then it happened again: two quick 6 on 5 goals in 51 seconds halved the Serbs’ lead. Before the game would have heated up too much, Filip Jankovic put away a man-up and Milos Cuk also sent the ball home from the perimeter 48 seconds later to go 13-9 up again. (Both teams struggled with their goalies, both coaches opted to send in the substitutes but neither of them did an outstanding job – in fact, national team’s goalie Moritz Schenkel’s departure to Duisburg left Waspo in a bit of a limbo.) It was 5:17 minutes to go, so Hannover had some time to do a miracle – but in the following three minutes they were unable to cut the gap. Then with only 2:00 on the clock, Benic’s blast hit the net, 51 seconds later Radovic also scored from action for 13-11. Though only 35 seconds remained when Hannover could regain the ball – a time-out was called, but the plan didn’t work. Still, a turnover foul played to their hand, and Fynn Schutze scored the third action goal in a row for 13-12, however, only 8 seconds were left so the Serbs prevailed at the end. It was indeed a shooting parade: 59 shots were taken (30-29) in 32 minutes, a great and entertaining game to watch – though Hannover’s attempt for a fourth straight F8 appearance is already in doubt as they lost to of their direct rivals Jadran and Radnicki in the first two rounds. How they saw it Dejan Stanojevic, coach, Radnicki “It was the same as in the first round – a very bad performance from my team in the second half. We must work harder to avoid these collapses. For sure, we’ll have longer and harder trainings in the coming weeks.” Karsten Seehafer, coach, Hannover “We played well in the fourth, perhaps in the second half but we didn’t have the necessary emotions and fighting spirit before. We need to have the emotions during the entire game. Now we need to collect points at home, we lost our first two matches but we have much more to play.”

Vouliagmeni (GRE) v Zodiac Barceloneta 7-11 The first period was devoted to some great defending, it took five and a half minutes to break the deadlock when Nikolaos Papasifakis converted a penalty. Barceloneta needed even more time to bring down the Greek wall, Luke Pavillard’s action goal 38 seconds from time made it 1-1. The Greeks held on – though the Spaniards started to find their rhythm, the hosts could equalise twice. Then Mark Larumbe netted a 6 on 4, so Barceloneta led 3-4 at halftime – but that was really an appraisal of Vouliagmeni’s outstanding efforts in the back. Though a fine stop from the goalie saved the hosts in the first man-down in the third, but only temporarily – the Spanish regained the ball and Alejandro Bustos doubled their lead. Marios Kapotsis pulled one back with a huge 6m blast, but in 53 seconds the visitors hit two and that was crucial. Unai Biel was on target twice, first from a man-up, then from action (a clear sign that there is life after Alvaro Granados in left-wing position). Vouliagmeni lost some composure in front, couldn’t add any more for long minutes and the game seemed to be over once Bustos scored a nice centre-goal for 4-8. Still, there was some hope. With 52 seconds to go, Charalampos Troulos finally netted an extra, then with 29 seconds into the fourth Kapotsis hit one from the action to make it 6-8. And the Greeks had a couple of more possessions to come even closer, once the post denied them, then in 27 seconds it was all over. Perrone buried a penalty, then Pavillard finished off a counter for 6-10 – even though there were still five minutes to play, it was hard to see another comeback from the Greeks. Indeed, it never happened. A bit later they netted a man-up, but soon Perrone’s brilliant action goal put the fight into bed. How they saw it Vladimir Vujasinovic, coach, Vouliagmeni “We played against a great team, one of the candidates for the title. I can say that it was a good match from our players but with a very bad man-up conversion. This made the difference in this game. We have to work on that, but we are looking forward – two weeks from now we meet Dinamo, and we hope we will get our first win in the Champions League.” Elvis Fatovic, coach, Barceloneta “Both teams played a very good defence, at the beginning we weren’t patient enough with their zone defence. They do it with great mobility while we were nervous, and our last passes weren’t good. We needed a couple of counter-attacks in the third period to go a ahead, the match was decided there.”

Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) v Olympiacos Piraeus (GRE) 9-21 The Greeks learned from their own mistakes committed here last season – they were defeated which was still stunning though by then they had lost the chance to make the F8 –, and perhaps were also aware that Barceloneta had made a sluggish start two weeks ago and had to dig deep to push the game onto its desired path. After an early exchange of goals, Olympiacos hit four in a row, the first three from action and later closed out the first period with a great one-timer by Konstantinos Genidounias for a 2-6 lead. They were rolling on in the second, with three more in 2:10 minutes they jumped to a 2-9 lead so after just 12 minutes they settled the bill. One goal apiece inside the last minute before the middle break made it 3-10 at halftime, but more came in the third. The Greeks were really flying high, scored eight goals in this period. Dinamo fell apiece, in the last two minutes Olympiacos had four connecting counter-attacking goals. The visitors laid back a bit in the fourth, the game was more balanced as three goals came at both ends. The Greeks finished with 21, one better than last season, when they beat Dinamo 20-9 at home (and two shy of Recco’s last season single game scoring record of 23 goals).  Ioannis Fountoulis was the top scorer of the afternoon with 7 hits, it was a bit strange though that Serbian great Filip Filipovic produced 0/5 while his team staged such a scoring feast in the pool.