March 2023

Day 10, Group A – Jadran Split (CRO) v NC Vouliagmeni (GRE) 10-10 Three weeks ago, Jadran completed the first part of their masterplan on reaching the Final Eight as they could win in Kragujevac. This is what their new coach Jurej Mateja emphasised earlier in the season: despite a couple of defeats, he insisted that their chances were very much alive, they just needed to beat Radnicki in Serbia and Vouliagmeni at home. Which sounded like an easy task, but the Croats could defeat only Dinamo in Split despite playing five matches in their pool already… After a quick exchange of goals Antonio Duzevic scored a brilliant one from the centre and Marko Jerinic-Kragic added an action goal a bit later. So the hosts jumped to a 3-1 lead in four minutes, but missed a 6 on 5 to expand the gap to three. That hit back in the second as the Greeks netted two from action in 42 seconds, and even though Marinic-Kragic buried another penalty, Vouliagmeni kept coming back with two more action goals for 5-5. As a contrast, Jadran missed two more 6 on 5s – were unable to put away four in a row – while Dylan Woodhead capped the Greeks’ fine spell with a man-up goal 12 seconds before the big break to put Vouliagmeni ahead for the first time. Luka Bukic finally sent the ball home from an extra in the third, but the response came immediately, another action goal. Niksa Dobud finished off a finely played man-up and 56 seconds later Marinic-Kragic blasted his fourth from the perimeter to take back the lead at 8-7. Marios Kapotsis made it even from a man-up, but Bukic buried a penalty, so Jadran was ahead again, though Marinic-Kragic was blocked in a 6 on 5, played after a time-out. Marino Cagalj made up for him from the Croats’ first possession, his action shot doubled their lead at 10-8. Few would have guessed that this would be the last goal from the hosts – but they were unable to add more in the last 7:18 minutes. For a while Vouliagmeni couldn’t launch threatening actions either, but after a missed extra a bit earlier, they played the second one after a time-out and made it. Despite the local crowd’s loudness was boosted by a complete brass band, silence ruled in the pool soon as Charalampos Troulos’ rocket brought back Vouliagmeni to even in 47 seconds. There were still four minutes to play, but the nets remained untouched. At crucial stages, at 10-8, then at 10-9, Niksa Dobud hit the woodwork from the centre, then his shot was well saved by Panagiotis Tsortsatos – something unusual from the big man, to miss three straight shots from close range. Credits also go to Tsortatos who posted two more huge saves in man-downs, the second one, denying Bukic 1:23 from time, might be remembered as the one earned the F8 spot for Vouliagmeni.  The Greeks held on, indeed, they had a clear shot to win the match but the ball bounced way above the bar three seconds before the end – a win would have surely cemented their place in Belgrade, they were still really happy with the draw. They kept their three-point lead ahead of Jadran and with four rounds to go this should be sufficient to make the cut. How they saw it Jurej Mateja, coach, Jadran “We are not satisfied with this draw. We had everything in our hands, but we conceded action goals and paid the price. Congrats to the team of Vouliagmeni.” Vladimir Vujasinovic, coach, Vouliagmeni “It was a good match and a good result for us since this means we are still fighting for the final eight. I’m really proud of what we have done till now, we really gave tonight everything we have.”

Day 10, Group A – Zodiac CNA Barceloneta (ESP) v Olympiacos Piraeus (GRE) 10-5 Beating Recco in Italy and downing Olympiacos by five goals within three weeks is a feat any team would be proud of. Barceloneta have just achieved that, and this seems to secure them the pole position in the race to the Final Eight. Nothing separated the sides in the first half. It was an outstanding battle of the defences, it was telling that the refs could call one exclusion apiece in the first period and again in the second. Staying 6 on 6 for most of the time with two excellent goalies in the back didn’t leave too much room for scoring. Indeed, the teams could score only from their lonely extras, Felipe Perrone draw first blood after four minutes and leftie Marton Vamos equalised 36 seconds from time (so Olympiacos needed more than seven minutes to hit the back of the net). The Hungarian leftie added another one two minutes in the second, from action, later Alberto Munarriz halted the hosts’ 9-minute-long silence by blasting a big one from the perimeter. Alexandros Papanastasiou put Olympiacos ahead once more, but Marc Larumbe converted their second 6 on 5 as well to bring the score to even again at 3-3, 21 seconds before the middle break. Munarriz buried a penalty right away in the third, then the Greeks missed another man-up and after a fine save by Unai Aguirre, Martin Famera netted one from action to double Barceloneta’s lead. Olympiacos lost their composure in front, they wasted two more extras and Nikolas Paul’s fantastic distant shot expanded the gap to three goals. It could have been more, but the hosts missed their first man-up (played after a time-out), still led 6-3 before the last break. Aguirre carried on his magic in the home side’s goal, while Munarriz converted another penalty, followed by Perrone’s second man-up goal – with 5:19 on the clock, Barceloneta had it at 8-3. It was a 6-0 rush after 2-3 – and a 14:55 minute-long shut-out for Olympiacos as they could score a penalty a bit later. There was no way back, though, Barceloneta could add two more in the remaining five minutes, while Papanastasiou put away an extra – that was all Olympiacos could offer in the second half: a penalty goal and a man-up hit. Barceloneta netted seven, on the contrary, while Aguirre was tremendous in their goal, had 16 saves on 21 shots for 76.2%, a winning effort in this sport. How they saw it Elvis Fatovic, coach, Barceloneta “The defence was the key for this game. Olympiacos are a great team with a great offensive potential, so it’s great to keep them on five goals. As for our part, in the first half we were in a rush, did not control our attacks, though at least out defence was excellent. Once we got sharper in offence, we managed to win the game.” Igor Milanovic, coach, Olympiacos “We were in the match for the first half, played an equal game. The we conceded three easy goals, for this beautiful team of Olympiacos it was enough to keep the match under control. We missed a lot of man-ups and shots from the centre, so there was no way to win this game.”

Day 10, Group B – Pro Recco (ITA) v Waspo 98 Hannover (GER) 21-4 Recco and Hannover have never been in the same weight-category – since Waspo entered the league, the Italians beat them 8 out of 8 times –, but the difference between the teams’ qualities have never been so painfully visible then this evening.  Recco pushed as hard as they could at both ends, and the reshaped German side were no match to them. While they could put up some resistance at home on Day 5, losing only 8-11 to the title-holders, this time the encounter was turned into one of the most one-sided contests in the season. While most of Recco’s possessions were real threats, Hannover couldn’t really penetrate the Italians’ defence, they could force a single man-up in the entire first half, as an example. It was inevitable that the gap was growing as home side entertained the capacity crowd with a flawless performance. They led 4-0 after eight minutes and 9-0 at halftime. Though the game didn’t offer too many excitements, the atmosphere in the pool was still magnificent, as Recco’s initiative of a kind of Tour de Champions League – visiting cities around Liguria – always guarantees that a lot of enthusiasts attend the matches. This time the encounter took place in Lavagna, dozens of youngsters cheered for Recco whose players did their best to satisfy the supporters. By the way, Hannover could break the ice 52 seconds into the fourth period, so after almost 25 minutes, at 14-0. It ended in a 21-4 rout – Recco again ‘only’ equalled the season’s single-game scoring record, but winning by 17 goals is the largest gap so far. How they saw it Sandro Sukno, coach, Recco “We played very well, this is nice result, a nice presentation from the team. After the break it was important to find the right gear and we played a really good game. It was great to see this atmosphere and the lot of young children around the pool.” Karsten Seehafer, coach, Hannover “It was hard, very hard… We were lucky to score four goals at least in the fourth period. We had a lot of problems this season and this game was not even like the first one where we had some resistance. What happened today wasn’t good for our self-confidence, but we work on and look forward.”

Day 10, Group A – Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) v Radnicki Kragujevac (SRB) 13-8 Radnicki’s away games miseries continued in Tbilisi (fourth loss beside one draw) as Dinamo came up with their best performance of the season to claim a second win in a row. The Serbs’ vanishing hopes to make the Final 8 practically ended in Georgia this evening: after losing to Jadran three weeks ago, they had slim chances to catch up the direct rivals but to achieve that a win in Tbilisi would have been a must. Instead, they found themselves 4-0 down after eight minutes. The hosts were flying high, managed to score a series of fine goals, including two in the last minute, while killing four man-downs. Radnicki, struggling with in-house problems for a while, ‘arrived’ at the pool only after the middle break as in the second quarter they could only pull one back after Dinamo went on adding goals and led 6-1. The Serbs had a better spell in the third, though only after 7-2. They netted two in 46 seconds, and after three minutes of intense battling Luka Pljevancic netted a 6m shot for 7-5. However, Andrija Vlahovic killed Radnicki’s momentum with a fine blast from the perimeter right away. Irakli Razmadze carried on posting a series of crucial saves (finished the game with 15 and an amazing saving percentage of 62.5%), and when Saba Tkeshelashvili hit his third, from action, for 9-5, the writing was already on the wall for the Serbs. When Filip Jankovic hit the post from a penalty early in the fourth and Jovan Saric sent the ball home from the outside for 10-5 at the other end, it was all over. Three more goals were hit at both ends but Dinamo’s first home win was never in danger and the capacity crowd celebrated the local heroes as if they had just won the Champions League or at least made the Final 8. They did not but they showed some character once more, while Radnicki’s dream to make the big stage once more after 2014 won’t come true this year either. How they saw it Dejan Stanojevic, coach, Dinamo “I don’t have too much to say, players of both teams were empty after the tiring tournament with the respective national teams, many Radnicki players were in Podgorica as well, just like us. Anyway, I must congratulate the players for this performance, they did their most and I’m happy that we could please our fans.” Stefan Brankovic, player, Radnicki “We started really badly, committed a lot of mistakes and this resulted this terrible game. We have to continue to work and leave this match behind us.”

After a series of single- or two-goal wins, Ferencvaros finally offered a game for their die-hard fans where the supporters didn’t have to get too excited in the fourth period as the three points were already in the bag. Still, it wasn’t an easy game for the 2019 champions as Spandau caused them some headaches during the match. Which wasn’t that surprising either as the Germans could upset FTC on Day 5 (11-10). Now the hosts were out for a revenge, admittedly, and they kicked off the match as they really meant it. After a relatively slow start, led 2-0 after two minutes but didn’t add more in the first period, the Hungarians netted three in the second to go 5-1 up. However, just like in the opening period, their efficiency dropped for second half of this quarter too, still, leading 5-2 at halftime may have satisfied them. Not the happenings early in the third though, when Roman Shepelev stepped up and netted two in a minute. Stylianos Argyropoulos also buried an extra between the two, still, it was an open game at 6-4. And soon Spandau came dangerously close after Mateo Cuk’s goal from a man-up – before the heat could have turned on, Vendel Vigvari’s fine shot from a 6 on 5 made it 7-5. After a steal, FTC earned a penalty 45 seconds later in the ensuing counter, Daniil Merkulov converted it, while Spandau missed their next man-up so the hosts could look for a more peaceful-than-usual closing period. At the beginning it didn’t look like one since Andrea Prioteasa scored an easy one from the perimeter and soon Spandau could play a man-up after a time-out to cut the gap to a single goal once more. This time the home defence worked well, Dmitri Kholod’s forced shot hit the bar, while his fellow Russian in the other team, Merkulov demonstrated how to finish an extra with a goal.  Instead of 8-7 it was 9-6 – and soon the scenes were repeated: this time a save denied Spandau’s man-up, while Vigvari hit his third from action for 10-6. Even though there were still 4:28 minutes to play, it was inevitable that FTC would not let this go. Denes Varga soon offered some teaser from his exceptional skills, a wrist shot while not really rising from the water, and lately Argyropoulos delivered his fourth of the game, though the Germans also netted two extras in the closing minutes. The win secured FTC’s Final Eight berth – this is going to be their fourth straight appearance from as many tries after their return to the elite stage in the 2018-19 season. How they saw it Zsolt Varga, coach, Ferencvaros “I was kind of expecting that our offence would not be that balanced tonight. At the beginning, we were rushing things in our possessions, didn’t feed our centre-forwards and give the chance to the refs to call exclusions. We compensated that with action goals but those are special feats, we cannot rely on them entirely. Then we could calm down, the offense started working better, while our defence did a fine job as we held Spandau on six goals till quite lately. Our game was a lot better than in Berlin, that loss gave us an extra motivation for this match, and since we didn’t have the chance to train together over the last three weeks, this result is more than fine.” Athanasios Kechagias, coach, Spandau “The bad start was crucial as were 5-1 down early in the second period. We tried to get back into the game, we were close to come back to one goal for a couple of times, we had some opportunities, but we always committed some minor mistakes. At this level every situation counts and Ferencvaros played definitely better today.”

Day 10, Group B – Astralpool Sabadell (ESP) v Jug Adriatic Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO) 15-12 Jug’s miseries seemed to have been over three weeks ago as they bounced back with a fine win over OSC, to leave a rather bad spell behind. However, it turned out that the Croats still have problems – the national team’s failure at home in the World Cup qualifiers, involving many Jug players, didn’t help either. After two minutes of initial battling, Sabadell stormed to a 3-0 lead in a span of 83 seconds, but Jug woke up and in an incredible finish to the opening period, they came back to 4-4. The last 2:51 minutes saw five goals, Jug netted three man-ups in a row in less than two minutes, then Francisco Valera buried an extra 6 seconds remaining, still, it was enough for Loren Fatovic to find the back of the net, beating the buzzer and the goalie from 10m. The Croats managed to make order in their backyard and with some better defending they gradually took control. They shut out the hosts for more than six minutes while they could finally go ahead for 5-6, then 6-7 by halftime. The fight continued in the third following a strict pattern: Valera levelled the score from a man-up but soon Jug retook the lead. This was repeated three times in this quarter – though there was a lot more action to record. Most notably at 7-7, when Toni Popadic stopped Bernat Sanahuja’s penalty and Toni Mozara netted one from action at the other end – so instead of 8-7, it was 7-8 and the Croats held on for 9-10 as they killed two man-downs before the last break. Though this could have been a boost for them, plus another denied extra early in the fourth, Jug were unable to keep up in the ‘money-time’ of the match. Indeed, their offence didn’t click any longer. They couldn’t penetrate Sabadell’s defence, for four and a half minutes they did not take a single shot, while the Spaniards made one steal after the other as the Croats stuck to feed the centre but were unable to overplay the Spanish zone. At the other end of the pool, Valera hit his 5th in the evening, this time from action, to equalise once more and in 38 seconds Luc Bertrand’s shot from the perimeter gave back the lead to the hosts at 11-10. Luck also took Sabadell’s side in these crucial moments, Popadic made a save in a man-down but after the corner-through the hosts could set up Dusan Banisevic in the centre. Then a minute and a killed Croatian man-up later Popadic had another save but this time the rebound fell to Sergi Cabanas’ hand who sent it to the net from close for 13-10. Franko Lazic put away an extra quickly to pull one back and Fatovic had a shot a bit later but couldn’t reduce the gap further while Bertrand’s action goal with 1:16 to go decided the outcome at 14-11. Konstantin Kakaris converted a 6 on 4 soon, but Kanstantin Averka blasted another one from the perimeter 39 seconds from time to seal Sabadell’s second victory in the season.  How they saw it Quim Colet, coach, Sabadell “It was an incredible match. My team started very well, then they played the last period extremely well. This win was very important for us, for this young team, to achieve results like this at home, in front of our fans. We should continue to work hard to make one more step forward in our next match.” Vjekoslav Kobescak, coach, Jug “Our players did amazing things in this game but also had bad things, and from that part, there were a lot. Sabadell were definitely the better team today, we simply couldn’t make three good defending in a row at any time in the evening – and you cannot win any match in the Champions League if you are not able to do that.”

Day 10, Group B – Novi Beograd (SRB) v CN Marseille (FRA) 11-4 The French could taste the sweetness of victory in the last round once more as they had beaten Sabadell. But to stage a big last surge to make the cut they should have pulled off a miracle in Belgrade, in the pool they had played in the previous two editions of the the Final 8.  Two 6m blasts, by NBG’s foreign master-shooters Dmitrios Skoumpakis and Alvaro Granados, kicked off the game in style – the French needed five and a half minutes to open the scoring. They could have equalised but missed a late man-up and Dusan Mandic buried a penalty NBG earned 5 seconds from time for 3-1. Marseille had a better spell in the second, they could tone down the hosts’ formidable offence for more than five minutes, while Vladan Spaic netted a man-up for 3-2. However, Angelos Vlachopoulos finally broke the ice, also from a 6 on 5, to make it 4-2 and Spaic’s next attempt from close range in an extra was well saved by Joao Fernandez. The battle continued after the halftime break, Marseille’s performance was way better than on many previous occasions, Ante Vukicevic halved the distance once more with a fine action shot. The French had a possession to go even, but a steal denied their counter and the ‘re-counter’ ended in a goal, by Radomir Drasovic. Just 27 seconds later NBG were 6-3 up after earning a penalty from another counter, converted by Granados. Marseille missed a crucial 6 on 5 and with 56 seconds to go Drasovic hit one from a man-up for 7-3. And it wasn’t even the end of this period as there was time to claim another penalty, and Drasovic made no mistake with 0:01 on the clock – and this 4-0 rush by the hosts put the game in bed. The fourth saw no goals for more than five minutes, the French missed two more 6 on 5s as they couldn’t beat Fernandez is the home side’s goal – the Brazilian posted 12 saves on 16 shots for 75%. And as the game was approaching its end, Novi Beograd added three late goals in a span of 90 seconds to make the evening even more bitter for Marseille which are losing their hopes to return to the Serbian capital at the end of the season.  How they saw it Zivko Gocic, coach, Novi Beograd “It was a very tough game till the last moment, but it was especially tough and intensive in the first half. We played well in defence, reacted well to this physical style of game Marseille like to imply and dominated the match in the third and fourth quarters. We are very satisfied with these three points.” Milos Scepanovic, coach, Marseille “We did well in the first half but many of our players were part of their respective national teams, played a lot of games in the past weeks and our team wasn’t in the best physical condition because of this. We should have had more strength to be competitive with Novi Beograd, also, we missed a lot of extramen, some players should have taken more responsibility in crucial situations.”

Day 10, Group B – Genesys-OSC Budapest (HUN) v AN Brescia (ITA) 14-14 Not surprisingly, Brescia had a better start, after 1-1, they staged a 0-3 run, hammered two from the perimeter while they killed a series of man-downs. Two fast goals, in 28 seconds, deep into the second period gave them a 2-6 lead and at that point they seemed to keep the game under firm control. However, the hosts had other thoughts and came up with a fine spell, halved the distance at 5-7, goalie Marton Levai produced some great catches, including a penalty stop, offering his team a couple of possessions to come even closer. However, they couldn’t capitalise on that, and Brescia could finish off a counter, by Stefano Luongo for 5-8. OSC then missed a man-up in the dying seconds, and Luongo kicked off the third with another action goal, so the Italians were sitting comfortably in the driving seat once more at 5-9. OSC didn’t give in, though, Daniel Angyal put away a man-up, then incoming goalie David Bisztritsanyi saved another penalty and Gergely Burian’s smart left-handed shot from action brought them back to 7-9. Dordje Lazic stepped up to save Brescia, killed OSC’s momentum with a great centre-move, then the Magyars wasted a man-up and another action goal, this time from Edoardo di Somma from the perimeter, reset their four-goal lead. There seemed to be no way back from here – though Krisztian Manhercz offered at least something special even neutral fans would applaud for: in a man-down, after a time-out, he hunted down his Italian rival right away on the first pass, stole the ball and sent it to the empty net as the goalie was swimming back after the restart… The Italians weren’t concerned too much, buried the next man-up, and another one still in the third to keep the distance at 9-13. The Magyars fought on, though, and they caught another wave. They earned two penalties and netted both, killed a man-down and made a 6 on 5, and after some heroic defending Burian’s 6m shot brought them back to even at 13-13, with 3:29 to go. The Italians lost their composure, sent the ball wide from another man-up, but OSC couldn’t take the lead from a possession which saw a double exclusion. Brescia finally netted a man-up with 73 seconds from time – their first goal in the fourth –, di Somma was set up on the 2m line for 13-14. OSC got the chance too and Burian hit his fourth from their 6 on 5, 44 seconds to go for 14-14. And a fine steal secured this hard-fought point for them – indeed, quite a change from Day 5: they also conceded 14 goals, like in Brescia, but instead of being limited to 6, they also scored 14. Their hopes to go through have already been fading fast before this game and this point didn’t help much, but at least they regained some pride this evening. How they saw it Daniel Varga, coach, OSC “It was a kind of victory from our perspective – we managed to bring down our own boundaries, step over them and show some quality. Had we done that in our previous matches when there were much more at stake, we could have more points. What I loved most was our fighting spirit, the inner power which a team either has or not – and I’ve been waiting to see that for a while in this season. There were a couple of matched when I felt that – but not in the extent it burst out today. This can give the players a huge boost for the rest of the season.”  Alessandro Bovo, coach, Brescia “We started the game well, and we did what we had to for three periods. Then in the fourth we started making more and more mistakes and that cost us the win.”