December 2023

Six more thrilling days await In the past, reaching the best eight meant a spot in the Final Eight. Now, with the new format, it secures a place in the quarter-final group stage and six more thrilling playing days to make the cut for the Final Four. Still, the top eight is the crème de la crème, so we may compare the field to last season’s F8. Six sides are the same – the four group winners, Recco, Novi Beograd, Ferencvaros and Barceloneta were all there in Belgrade last June (Recco, NBG and CNAB were the three medallists). From the runners-up, Olympiacos and Brescia also kept their respective places among the elite, while Marseille return after being absent last time, and Jadran Split join the show for the first time since the Champions League was introduced (They won the trophy in the ‘old system’ in 1992 and 1993). Broken Jug As for Croatian representation, Jadran took over Jug’s place in the top eight. It’s hard not to see the decline of the Dubrovnik-based side which reached the Final 6/8 in the last eight editions. They made the semis in four consecutive seasons, from 2015 to 2018 (claiming the trophy in 2016, runners-up in 2017), then lost in the quarters in their last four tries and now they were eliminated in the group stage. It happened with a reason as they also lost their home crown to Jadran at the end of the last season. Thus, they had to come through the Champions League qualification round and were drawn together with Recco and Olympiacos, which put the writing on the wall… Mesmerising Vogel Staying in Croatia, Jadran managed to save their last game to a tie against Ferencvaros, though they were three goals down early in the fourth period. However, this was the maximum the boys from Split could squeeze out from this encounter as they stood no chance in the penalty shootout. The presence of Soma Vogel in FTC’s goal visibly mesmerised them as now everyone knows that the Hungarian netminder is a shootout master. He posted an incredible saving percentage at the Worlds in the summer, stopping eight penalties out of 12 in the knockout phase in Fukuoka and four of those came in the shootout against Greece which landed the title for Hungary. Vogel has an incredible streak in shootouts – his saves earned titles for the national team at the 2020 Europeans and this year’s Worlds, and also for Ferencvaros which won the 2018 Super Cup, the 2019 Champions League and a national league gold in 2019 after penalties. Add another in-season shootout win from the previous years, and it’s no surprise Vogel stopped the first two shots of the Croats on Tuesday, securing a 23rd victory for his team in as many matches this season and expanding his winning ratio to 7/7 in shootouts. Italian joy Novi Beograd helped Brescia a little – though the Serbs had already secured their spot in the quarters after day five, they didn’t let their last game go against Sabadell. Partly because the top spot means they will be drawn together with two runners-up in the QF round on 15 December, partly because they wanted to take revenge for their embarrassing home defeat to the Spaniards on day three. This win saved Brescia from dropping to the Euro Cup – so the Italians thrashed Steaua to make the top eight (they also reached the final stage in the past six editions). Brescia advancing means Italy is the only nation with two teams in the QF Round. Journey continues The group stage of the Euro Cup will finish this Saturday and the advancing teams will face tough challenges in the Eight-Finals against the third and fourth-placed sides from the Champions League. Third-ranked teams will be drawn against a runner-up from the Euro Cup groups on 15 December, while fourth-placed teams will be paired with a group winner. Probably Dinamo and Steaua top the wish-lists among the respective top-ranked teams as they lost all their matches in the Champions League and were unable to force close ties in any of the six rounds. Jadran Herceg Novi had some better moments, while Vouliagmeni, fourth in the F8 last time, won for the first time in the last round (against Spandau), still, the Greeks lost narrowly on a few occasions, so they could be a nightmare to any rival. The field of the third-placed teams feature Jug, Spandau, Sabadell and Crvena Zvezda – though they say farewell to the Champions League, now they can be ‘re-labelled’ as serious title-contenders in the Euro Cup.

Novi Beograd showed no mercy in Sabadell and took revenge over the Spanish side with a convincing performance. That paved the way for Brescia who took the chance as an easy victory over Steaua sent them to the quarter-final round. In a match of prestige, Recco edged out Olympiacos with a last-gasp goal, though the Greeks held a massive lead late in the third period. Group A: Astralpool Sabadell (ESP) v VK Novi Beograd (SRB) 7-10, AN Brescia (ITA) v Steaua Bucharest (ROU) 16-7 Rankings: 1. NBG 15, 2. Brescia 11, 3. Sabadell 10, 3. Steaua 0 Group B: Olympiacos Piraeus (GRE) v Pro Recco (ITA) 10-11, Jug Adriatic Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO) v Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) 19-13 Rankings: 1. Recco 18, 2. Olympiacos 11, 3. Jug 7, 4. Dinamo 0 Sabadell would have needed at least two points in its last home game against group leader Novi Beograd – a regular-time win, which they had claimed in Belgrade on Day 3, would have rocketed them to the first place. However, Novi Beograd showed no mercy as they took revenge and never left any doubt that they were better side in the early afternoon encounter. Just like in their previous clash, against Brescia at home, the Serbs won the match with their outstanding defending. They limited the Italians to five goals in the fifth round and now allowed only seven to the Spaniards. At the same time, their powerful offence did the damage in front. NBG already took control in the first half, but the hosts stayed close and trailed 4-6 at halftime. Trouble began when the Serbs hit two in 46secs for 4-8: Sabadell pulled one back to break its seven-minute-long silence, but Angelos Vlachopoulos buried an extra still in the third to reset the four-goal gap before the final period. Though NBG could add only one goal in the last eight minutes, victory was never in danger. This win secured NBG’s first place, as well as opening the door wide in front of Brescia which only had to beat Steaua to join the top eight. Achieving that was never in question against the Romanians who had been unable to force a tight match in the previous five rounds. This match was no exception either as the Italians stormed to a 4-0 lead in eight minutes and soon were 7-1 up deep into the second period. They led 12-3 after three periods so they avoided the embarrassment of not making the top eight after six straight F8 appearances. The day’s only thriller was played in Piraeus where Olympiacos and Recco were entangled in another huge fight, as usual between these two since long years. It was all about prestige as in Group D the rankings had already been cemented after the fifth round. Still, the Greeks pushed hard and for most of the time they seemed to catch the title-holders, just like they had done at the beginning of the last season. Late in the third they led 8-5, soon had a man-up for +4 – they missed it, and Gonzalo Echenique’s action goal narrowed the gap to two 45 seconds before the last break. Two minutes into the final quarter, Ioannis Fountoulis hit one for 9-7, but within a minute Gergo Zalanki blasted one, then Nicholas Presciutti equalised from a 6 on 5 and there was still 3:42 minutes to play. Another missed man-up came from the hosts and Presciutti added another one from a counter to put Recco ahead for the first time in the game at 9-10, with 2:32 to go. A rebound helped Olympiacos in a dying 6 on 5, Alexandros Papanastasiou put the ball away from close to tie it with 34 seconds on the clock. Still, Recco had it at the end, earned a man-up and Francesco di Fulvio sent the ball home when the clock showed 0:01… Recco thus maintained its unbeaten run this autumn, finishing 6/6 in the group stage and stands 11/11 so far in the Italian league. In the other match Jug bowed out on a high note at least – the Croats staged a feast in shooting (took 37 in 32 minutes) and scoring (19 goals) as Hannes Daube hit a season-high seven goals (had 10 shots, the only player with double digits in a single game in the group stage), to offer something positive for the Dubrovnik fans who now have to prepare for Euro Cup ties, something they haven’t seen for a long time. Champions League now takes a longer break as the European Championships come in January and the Worlds in February – action shall resume on 8 March. The draw for the Quarter-Final Round, together with the Euro Cup eight-finals, shall take place on 15 December.

Marseille booked the penultimate spot in the quarter-final round, hours before their last game, thanks to Vouliagmeni’s win over Spandau in Group D. The French could then afford to lose a spectacular match to Barceloneta, although they were close to a shootout. Penalties decided the outcome of the Jadran Split and Ferencvaros clash as the Hungarians bagged their 23rd win in the season in as many matches. Group C: Jadran Split (CRO) v FTC-Telekom Budapest (HUN) 16-16, pen: 1-4, BVK Crvena Zvezda (SRB) v Jadran Herceg Novi (MNE) 9-6 Standings: 1. FTC 17, 2. Split 10, 3. Zvezda 7, 4. Herceg Novi 2 Group D: Vouliagmeni NC (GRE) v Spandau 04 Berlin (GER) 10-6, CN Marseille (FRA) v Zodiac CNA Barceloneta (ESP) 12-13 Standings: 1. Barceloneta 18, 2. Marseille 9, 3. Spandau 6, 4. Vouliagmeni 3 The big question of the day was answered practically in eight minutes – Vouliagmeni stormed to a 5-0 lead against Spandau in the first period in the afternoon encounter in Group D. Since the Germans needed a regular-time win to stay on course, this meant that Marseille didn’t even have to touch water to go through. Although Spandau had a better spell in the second quarter and at the beginning of the third as they climbed back to 6-5, they ran out of steam and couldn’t add any more in the following six and half minutes, missing three extras, while the Greeks managed to score twice for an 8-5 lead before the last break.  And two more goals in 84 seconds in the fourth secured a win of prestige for Vouliagmeni – indeed, Spandau couldn’t score a single goal in the last 14 minutes, not the way to make the best eight in this competition. In the other now stake-less match, Marseille jumped to an early 3-1 lead with a hat-trick by Krisztian Manhercz, but Barceloneta started gearing up in the second period, hit two in the last 80 seconds and Felipe Perrone netted a fine action goal for 6-9 early in the third. Still, despite being down by three at 7-10 and 8-11, their renewed efforts finally put the French back level with 2:22 remaining. Perrone buried CNAB’s next man-up for 12-13, then the hosts had an almost endless possession which saw back-to-back man-ups and five shots, but none hit the back of the net thanks to the Spaniards’ outstanding defending. In Group C, the qualified teams produced a brilliant 32-goal spectacle and a shootout as a bonus. For a while, the lead was constantly changing between Jadran Split and Ferencvaros, then the group-winner Hungarians netted four in a row for 10-13. However, the Croats didn’t let it go and managed to catch up their rivals at 15-15 with 1:43 remaining. Soon Stylianos Argyropoulos hit his fourth from action, but a bit lucky man-up goal brought the hosts back to even for 16-16, 41 seconds from time. In the last game in the current season, FTC failed to win the match in 32min for the first time after 22 victories across all competitions. They still bagged a shootout win, thanks to their goalie’s usual magic: Soma Vogel, whose penalty saves landed gold for Hungary this summer’s World Championships (and at the 2020 Europeans and for Ferencvaros in the 2019 Champions League final and the 2018 Super Cup final), stopped the Croats’ first two attempts in a business-as-usual style. The encounter of Crvena Zvezda and Jadran Herceg Novi went for a better seeding in the Euro Cup as third-placed sides will be drawn against EC group stage runners-up. Although the Montenegrins stormed to a 1-4 lead in the first period, they lost their composure in front and remained scoreless in the middle two quarters. Indeed, their next hit came after 18:54 minutes and during this phase the Serbs netted five, and two more as a response after 6-5 to win the game and clinch the third place. Fixtures for Wednesday Group A 12.30 Astralpool Sabadell (ESP) v VK Novi Beograd (SRB) 20.00 AN Brescia (ITA) v Steaua Bucharest (ROU) Standings: 1. NBG 12, 2. Sabadell 10, 3. Brescia 8, 3. Steaua 0 Group B 18.00 Olympiacos Piraeus (GRE) v Pro Recco (ITA) 19.00 Jug Adriatic Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO) v Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) Standings: 1. Recco 15, 2. Olympiacos 11, 3. Jug 4, 4. Dinamo 0

It’s decision time in the final round of the Group Stage when the remaining two spots in the quarter-final round will be booked. Brescia and Sabadell are gunning for the second place in Group A while Marseille and Spandau are doing the same in Group D. In two groups, the all-important questions have already been answered. In Group B, Recco secured the top spot and Olympiacos also qualified as runner-up, just like in Group C, where Ferencvaros took first place and Jadran Split finished second. The advancing sides will clash in the last round for the prestige although for title-holder Recco against Olympiacos and for 2019 champion Ferencvaros in Split there can be some extra motivation: that is to keep their perfect records with both teams yet to lose a game (rather a point) this autumn in any competition they entered. Groups A and D offer a lot more excitement. While 2022 and 2023 runner-up Novi Beograd has already qualified, the Serbs face a tough away match in Sabadell where the Spaniards need at least two points to make the next round. That would come at the expense of Brescia, which would be a huge upset as the Italians have reached the F6/8 in the last six editions. A regular time win for Sabadell would even land them first place in Group A and since they claimed an astonishing victory in Belgrade on Day 3, more heroics from the Spanish cannot be ruled out at all. Fellow Spaniards Barceloneta has already ticked all the boxes but it’s a do-or-die game for the French who need at least a point against the group leaders to stay on board. They may need that point provided Spandau could beat Vouliagmeni in Greece and any other outcome of that match would send Marseille to the quarters, irrespective of the result they achieve against Barceloneta. Champions League, Group Stage, Round 6 (all times are CET) Group A (Wednesday) 12.30 Astralpool Sabadell (ESP) v VK Novi Beograd (SRB) 20.00 AN Brescia (ITA) v Steaua Bucharest (ROU) Standings: 1. NBG 12, 2. Sabadell 10, 3. Brescia 8, 3. Steaua 0 Group B (Wednesday) 18.00 Olympiacos Piraeus (GRE) v Pro Recco (ITA) 19.00 Jug Adriatic Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO) v Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) Standings: 1. Recco 15, 2. Olympiacos 11, 3. Jug 4, 4. Dinamo 0 Group C (Tuesday) 19.00 Jadran Split (CRO) v FTC-Telekom Budapest (HUN) 20.00 BVK Crvena Zvezda (SRB) v Jadran Herceg Novi (MNE) Standings: 1. FTC 15, 2. Split 9, 3. Zvezda 4, 4. Herceg Novi 2 Group D (Tuesday) 15.00 Vouliagmeni NC (GRE) v Spandau 04 Berlin (GER) 20.00 CN Marseille (FRA) v Zodiac CNA Barceloneta (ESP) Standings: 1. Barceloneta 15, 2. Marseille 9, 3. Spandau 6, 4. Vouliagmeni 0 Catch all the live action from the Champions League here: https://lenchampionsleague.eurovisionsports.tv/event/14/group-stage-2023-24 And keep up with all the results, including video replays of all the key moments, here: https://championsleague.europeanaquatics.org/calendar/