February 2023

Day 8, Group A – Radnicki Kragujevac (SRB) v Olympiacos Piraeus (GRE) 10-10 A year ago, Olympiacos’ miseries started here in Kragujevac as the Greeks suffered a stunning defeat and that sent them to a downward spiral and at the end they failed to qualify for the Final Eight. Now their F8 spot is not in danger – beat Recco, lost only once in the first seven rounds –, and even have a fine chance to finish atop but dropping two precious points in Kragujevac may also have a long-lasting impact on that race. In the first half it all looked easy for the Greeks – scored five in the first period, and even though the hosts came back to 4-6, two action goals in the last minute of the first half put Olympiacos 4-8 ahead. Few if any foresaw what was coming, the enthusiastic home crowd may have dreamt of it but might not believe in that. Aleksa Ukropina pulled one back in 25 seconds, but soon Marko Bijac stopped a penalty to calm down the locals. However, of a greater importance, Lazar Dobozanov made three saves in a row at the other end and that triggered something big. Ukropina hit another one in the middle of this quarter for 6-8, then the Greeks wasted an extra. Radnicki had a 6 on 5 after a time-out but missed it badly, Pljevancic got a red card on his way back, but this time a block denied Olympiacos’ extra. With 3:01 to go till the last break, Nikola Lukic scored the third action goal in a row and at 7-8 it was no longer hope but belief in the home camp. Dobozanov made a huge save in a man-down – though Bijac also had a catch when Radnicki could go for the equaliser in a 6 on 5 late in the third. Missing that extra seemed to have been crucial in the wake of the first minutes in the fourth. Radnicki couldn’t penetrate the Greek defence, they were forced to distant shots while the pressure Olympiacos imposed was mounting. However, the Serbs had Dobozanov who showed an amazing steal as he pushed the ball away from the centre’s hand in a man-down, then made three saves in 54 seconds when their rivals took four shots within one lengthy possession (the fourth hit the post). Four minutes to go, Dobozanov stopped another shot in a man-down and after such heroics it was inevitable that the home side would find the way to score. Finally Lukic’s shot from the perimeter beat Bijac – with 3:38 on the clock it was even at 8-8. Dobozanov delivered his 10th straight save, Radnicki earned a man-up and even though the first shot was blocked, the Serbs got the rebound and Ukropina’s fantastic blast sent the crowd in a frenzy as the home side led 9-8 with 2:31 remaining. The next Greek shot hit the post, soon arrived another man-up for the home side, after a time-out. Ukropina’s ball bounced back from the woodwork, but again, the Serbs regained the ball and this time it was Lukic’s turn to put the ball behind Bijac from 6m. (He and Ukropine both finished this amazing match with 4 goals apiece.) At this point, having staged a 6-0 run, a two-goal lead in hand and only 77 seconds to play, Radnicki had it by all means. Still – it’s gone.  All they needed was to survive the next possession – didn’t seem a big deal as the Greeks were yet to score in the second half. However, after 15:02 minutes, they made it, Konstantinos Mourikis managed to outmanoeuvre his defender and scored from the centre for 10-9. Uros Stevanovic blew up at the Kragujevac bench in anger as the coach knew this goal came too early and too easily – with 58 seconds remaining, Olympiacos would have one more possession. And they killed Radnicki’s last attempt with ease, and went for a 7 on 6 after a time-out, with Bijac in front of the goal. Despite all their miseries since the middle break, the Greeks used all their experience to play this last possession with precision, set up Filip Filipovic who had always been famous for making the most important shots even when he had a not-so-great day. Like this evening: it was a masterpiece how the big leftie beat his young fellow Serbs, the blocking defender and Dobozanov from the perimeter, to save the game to a tie, 7 seconds from time. How they saw it Uros Stevanovic, coach, Radnicki “Once again, we lost two points the same way we had done against Jadran. The result was also the same, we led 10-8 with a minute to go, still finished 10-10. It’s four points, too much to lose for this team if we want to make the Final Eight. You may say we took a point from Olympiacos, but I’d say we rather lost two. Our roster is changing in the middle of the season, so it’s already a new team and have time to grow and play better and better.” Igor Milanovic, coach, Olympiacos “Congratulations for Uros and Radnicki for this effort. We had a pretty nice first half but after that I’d say my players were like almost refused to play. We were rushing our attacks, lacked the precision in our defence. That’s life, at the end of the day we can be happy for not losing despite we led 8-4.”

Day 8, Group A – Pro Recco (ITA) v Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) 20-5 It took seven minutes for Recco to reach the expected gear and level of concentration both in offense and in defence. After a 2-0 quickstart, they held an almost 3min break in scoring while Besarion Akhvlediani could find the back of the net twice. And at 3-2 Marco del Lungo had to come up with a huge save in a one-on-one to prevent Dinamo from coming back to even. Then the last minutes brought two more hits from the hosts for 5-2, so the opening quarter’s result already met the expectations. Recco carried on in the first three minutes in the following period, leftie Gergo Zalanki blasted two in 32 seconds, Ben Hallock added one a bit later for 8-2, but then came another unusually long break in scoring – only a penalty was buried, by Aleksandar Ivovic, 49 seconds before the middle break. The third finally offered what the public in Imperia had gathered for, the title-holders kept their composure throughout the whole period which resulted six more goals. On the other end, Del Lungo came up with a couple of big saves as the Georgians also worked hard to create chances but the Italian great was in fine shape and finished the game with 9 on 12, before he was substituted for the last quarter. Reserve goalie Tommaso Negri was up to the task too, he stopped a penalty. After four easy goals in 2:18 minutes, the Italians’ concentration level dropped once more, and they didn’t add any till the final moments. In the meantime, Akhvlediani hit his third, then Aicardi stole back a lost ball to net Recco’s 20th in the evening with 1:35 remaining. Akhvlediani scored a fourth, while the hosts had two more shots but at the end they were one shy of the season’s scoring record of 21 goals, held jointly by themselves (against Radnicki), Jadran and Olympiacos (both against Dinamo). How they saw it Sandro Sukno, coach, Recco “It’s true that we are much stronger than Dinamo, still, I’m satisfied with our performance. We played with high rhythm and nice water polo, and I think the fans enjoyed it too.” Dejan Stanojevic, coach, Dinamo “To be honest, for a moment in the fourth period, I’ve heard my bench saying why Recco was playing that hard even in the fourth period. Well, I should say I like the teams which gave their maximum against us, this is the way they show they quality and respect and this is the way we can also improve. Of course, Recco had more power, quality and experience, the rhythm they play with is something my players couldn’t cope with, they don’t have the abilities to react to that. The first period was OK, the rest showed the difference I was talking about.”

Day 8, Group A: Vouliagmeni (GRE) v Waspo 98 Hannover (GER) 10-9 In the previous round the Greeks kept the game under control and won convincingly. Their start was like the continuation of that match, jumped to a 2-0 lead, held on for 4-2 in the action packed opening period, though the Germans could pull one back 9 seconds before the first break. What came next was a bit out of the blue. Hrvoje Benic’s fine finish from a man-up was part of the show in Waspo’s first possession – Andrija Basic’s backhander from the perimeter was not. Still, it caught the goalie by surprise, just like Benic’s next distant shot from the outside 58 seconds later which gave a two-goal lead to the visitors. A penalty halted Hannover’s run (they staged a 0-4 rush altogether), but Benic hit his third in this quarter from another extra for 5-7. Dimitrios Nikolaidis halved the distance with a fine centre-shot, but Benic was on fire and put away one more 6 on 5, three seconds before the middle break for 6-8. Marios Kapotsis pulled one back 50 seconds into the third, but Luka Lozina beat his defender in the centre for 7-9 17 seconds later. Few would have guessed that this was Hannover’s last goal in this match. But it happened – incoming young goalie Emmanouil Andreadis began to deliver one save after the other, and, as a consequence, the Germans also tried to place the ball a bit higher and wider to avoid his arms, so many shots hit the woodwork. While the starting netminder Panagiotis Tzortzatos was 1 on 9, Andreadis posted 6 saves on 7 attempts – rather 6 on 6, once he conceded that goal by Lozina. With this significant improvement in defence, Vouliagmeni went step by step, though it didn’t go with ease. A fine action goal deep into the third brought them one closer, then Nikolaidis hit another one from the centre 29 seconds from time to bring his team back to even at 9-9. The final act produced a tremendous fight. Hannover survived a man-down, and then in the next they denied the first shot, came back at full strength, but Nikolaos Papasifakis’ ball from the left wing somehow made it to the net with 3:57 on the clock for 10-9. The Germans couldn’t really hurt the hosts’ zone, they earned only one exclusion in the entire second half (it was a 6 on 4, rather), but only inside the last three seconds in the third. They couldn’t force one in the last period while Andreadis hunted down their shots from the perimeter. Without goals and play-breaks, players started to be worn out, so no real chances opened and at the end this single goal in the fourth decided the outcome. This was a huge win for the Greeks as they broke five points clear ahead of Radnicki in the race for the fourth qualifying spot (and hoped that local arch-rival would win later in Kragujevac), while this loss may end Hannover’s quest for a 4th straight Final Eight appearance.

Day 8, Group A – Zodiac CNA Barceloneta (ESP) v Jadran Split (CRO) 8-6 Twenty-five hours are usually enough to get to Australia from any point of Europe. This week it took Jadran this amount of time to fly from Split to Barcelona, due to the Armageddon in the Lufthansa network, caused by IT meltdowns and airport strikes. Looking at the events in the first period, one may say what happened was inevitable. Only to add a footnote: ten days ago, it looked even more hopeless at the Croats’ home, and back then they arrived at their pool by their cars, not by Lufthansa. On day 7, Jadran were 0-6 down, could not score in the entire first half – now they went 0-4 down in eight minutes. Barceloneta started rolling right from the beginning, scored four action goals including two from counters, while the Croats missed two extras. This time, however, the next stages weren’t as disastrous as in the previous match. Luka Bukic put Jadran on the scoreboard from their first possession in the second, and they could have come even closer, but their man-up play didn’t click at this stage. At the same time, their defence stepped up – though the Spaniards kind of stepped down, at least they no longer offered that dynamic and pulsing offensive play as in the first quarter. Martin Famera still netted one from action for 5-1, then the Croats went 0 for 4, while Felipe Perrone sent the ball home in Barceloneta’s next 6 on 5 for 6-1. Marin Delic replied from action, and to have some positives, the Croats denied back-to-back man-downs in the last minute. Still, in the third for a while the boys from Split looked like if they had received some treatment against scoring as they missed three more 6 on 5s, so the hosts, also looking like to have an extended lunchbreak, could add one more again, Roger Tahull hit his second from action. Antonio Duzevic replied from action again with 1:09 on the clock, and the period ended the usual way, a missed extra from Jadran, this time a 5 on 4. The Croats dropped to 0 for 9 early in the fourth, Barceloneta also missed one, so for the first time since the opening period Jadran could come inside four goals as Luka Bukic finally scored one at the end of a dying man-up. And they had a couple of possessions to further cut the gap but could not penetrate the home side’s defence and Luke Pavillard sent the ball home in a man-up with 4:34 to go for 8-4.  Blocks denied the Croats in the following attacks and only two minutes remained when Duzevic scored a clear man-up goal for 8-5. Barceloneta’s offense ceased to work by this time, but Jadran could add only one more, from a penalty, with 1:06 before the final whistle.  So however bad it looked after eight minutes, Jadran left the pool with a modest defeat – conceded only four in the last three periods, as many as they had in the first. Though they lacked the real sharpness in offence as their man-up play showed (had three occasions, when they passed the ball to the defenders’ hands), but it was more telling that they took only 19 shots and just 11 made it to the goal. How they saw it Elvis Fatovic, coach, Barceloneta “The only good things we could take from this match are the three points we claimed. For four-five minutes we were really good, played on the level we wanted and took a 4-0 lead. Then, we started to look like as if we had travelled 25 hours to get here, not Jadran. I saw the main problem in our less disciplined attack, that helped Jadran to have easier transition and earn exclusions easier. Still, congrats for Jadran as they played really well despite all the difficulties to get here due to the strikes at the airports. We should take lessons from this game since the number of mistakes we made will not do much good for us in Recco in the following round.”  Jurej Mateja, coach, Jadran “I don’t think this is the end. We still have a match against Radnicki in Kragujevac and against Vouliagmeni at home, with those two wins we could get back in the game. So I don’t lose hope.”

Day 8, Group B – FTC-Telekom Budapest (HUN) v Genesys-OSC Budapest (HUN) 12-11 Just ten days ago and some 5km away, FTC led 3-10 at halftime and 7-16 in the fourth before OSC did some ’cosmetics’, a late 5-0 surge made the final scoreline a bit more ‘tolerable’. Now the Hungarian arch-rivals faced off once more, for the fourth time in 8 weeks – and produced another memorable match. The first period was balanced – just like in the previous encounter –, three goals came apiece, two in the last 33 seconds. Last time FTC staged a 1-7 run in the second – now nothing even similar happened. On contrary, after equalising twice, Marton Toth could even take the lead for OSC with a fine centre-shot at 5-6. Szilard Jansik levelled the score from a man-up and after Vince Vigvari was denied twice in a man-down by the blocking hands, Daniil Merkulov could put the greens ahead with a brilliant shot 4 seconds from time. That was crucial as FTC kicked off the third in devastating mood, two action goals in 52 seconds, followed by a fine shot from the perimeter by Merkulov gave the favourites a 10-6 lead. Erik Bundschuch could halt their 5-0 run and score again for OSC (ending a silence of 7:38 minutes), soon Erik Csacsovszky could pull one more back from another 6 on 5. OSC survived a man-down late in the third, and another one early in the fourth, then Gergely Burian came up with a beauty, a fantastic lob from the distance to get his team very much back into the game at 10-9. Ferencvaros lost their composure a bit after 10-6, Stylianos Argyropoulos missed their third man-up in a row (the Greek had only better games than this one, finished the evening with a 10/2 shooting ratio), but OSC were unable to equalise. A fourth man-up finally broke the ice, though it was a bit adventurous how the ball found Luca Damonte on the right wing – all in all, the Italian sent it home for 11-9 and halted FTC’s scoreless phase of 7:12 minutes. Two more minutes of battling was closed down by Denes Varga’s fine action goal from a counter-like attack, so at 12-9 his brother Daniel Varga had to find out something special at the other bench. Well, the coach and his players ‘said’ an all-in, scored twice in 52 seconds, defended well, had a last possession, earned a man-up 21 seconds from time so they had a great chance to save the game at least to a tie… But the happy end never came, at least not for them, Csacsovszky’s ball flew away, above the crossbar, so OSC lost for the fourth time in as many matches to FTC since mid-December, and by a single goal for the third time (each occasion in FTC’s home). At the same time, Ferencvaros managed to bag all three points in their home Champions League match again to make it 4/4 so far. None of these wins came with ease (12-11 this time, 9-8 over Marseille, 9-7 against Jug, 14-12 against NBG), but still earned them 12 extremely valuable points. How they saw it Zsolt Varga, coach, FTC “The two sides know each other really well, so despite claiming a big win in our previous match, this time we had an extremely difficult task. I consider it a huge accomplishment that we could beat OSC for the fourth time, and I’m happy that our concentration was a bit better in the last moments.” Daniel Varga, coach, OSC “With our game, we are getting closer and closer to Ferencvaros and knowing the difference between the potential of the two clubs, this one-goal defeat can be regarded a good result, though not a single point is rewarded for that. There are more important things than the rankings, like the road the team is travelling. This time I got back from my players what I had expected and that makes me really happy.”

Day 8, Group B – AN Brescia (ITA) v CN Marseille (FRA) 15-13 Before this match, Brescia conceded 14 goals in total in their previous three home matches, twice four and once six. Add that they limited Marseille to five goals ten days ago while winning by eight… So the first eight minutes were somewhat stunning as the French hit four right away. Brescia jumped to a 2-0 lead, but their rivals replied with four connecting goals, including three in 1:46 minutes, to go 2-4 up before Stefano Luongo netted an extra 27 seconds from time. It continued similarly for a while, Marseille went ahead two more times before Vincenzo Dolce buried a penalty for 6-6 and 42 seconds later he added one more from action to retake the lead shortly before halftime. The Italians had an easy chance, a 6 on 3 to make it 8-6 to kick off the third – and after the two Montenegrin goalies came up with some fine saves at both ends, finally Brescia could score again to expand the gap to three goals. With 2:45 remaining they still led 10-7 when Andrija Prlainovic converted an extra and in 45 seconds Thomas Vernoux reduced the gap to one with a great centre-shot. However, this time it was Vincenzo Renzuto’s turn to score twice in quick succession, in a span of 47sec he netted two extras for 12-9 to put the writing on the wall for the French. Brescia missed two man-ups in the fourth, Ugo Crousillat converted a penalty for 12-10, but another 6 on 4 offered another easy finish for the hosts and Luongo made no mistake. Prlainovic blasted one for 13-11 and there was still 4:12 minutes to play, but Brescia responded well once more. Jacopo Alesiani scored from action in the next possession, then Marseille missed a crucial 6 on 5 and in 33 seconds Dolce reset the four-goal difference at 15-11. The French could halve the gap, however, their last came with 24 seconds on the clock, way too late. Even though they managed to score almost as many goals as Brescia’s previous three rivals combined in this pool, that may not be that uplifting for the French as they are still bottom-ranked in this group. How they saw it Alessandro Bovo, coach, Brescia “It was a very physical match with many exclusions. We did great while attacking six on six, did good positioning and also did great in counterattacks. We had some problems in defence, but don’t forget that Marseille is a very good team with great players.” Milos Scepanovic, coach, Marseille “It was a really tough game and even though we lost, I’m proud of the team. We had a good reaction after all the troubles in the Champions League this season. Of course, it was really tough to play once more against an amazing team but at the end we did well, I think.”