Four of the six qualifying spots were booked on Day 2 of the Champions League Qualification Round. Novi Beograd, Oradea, Brescia and Panathinaikos are all through – and while NBG enjoyed a relatively easy ride, the other three had to battle their way past their respective opponents in hard-fought encounters.
Champions League Men 2026/27
Qualification Round, Day 2
Saturday 19 September
Group A
(Oradea)
VK Novi Beograd Tehnomanija (SRB) 21-14 Spandau 04 Berlin (GER) (6-6, 7-3, 5-3, 3-2)
Team Strasbourg (FRA) 8-10 CSM Oradea (ROU) (1-3, 2-3, 0-2, 5-2)
Standings: 1. Novi Beograd 6, 2. Oradea 5, 3. Spandau 1, 4. Strasbourg 0
Group B
(Tbilisi)
CN Sabadell (ESP) 20-12 Budva BR (MNE) (7-5, 6-2, 5-2, 2-3)
A-Polo Management (GEO) 17-21 AN Brescia (ITA) (5-4, 5-5, 4-4, 3-8)
Standings: 1. Brescia 6, 2. Sabadell 3, 3. A-Polo 3, 4. Budva 0
Group C
(Split)
Panathinaikos AC (GRE) 9-7 Endo Plus Service Honved (HUN) (2-1, 2-1, 3-3, 2-2)
Standings: 1. Panathinaikos 6 (2 matches), 2. Jadran 0 (1), 3. Honved 0 (1)
Group A
(Oradea)
VK Novi Beograd Tehnomanija (SRB) 21-14 Spandau 04 Berlin (GER) (6-6, 7-3, 5-3, 3-2)
Team Strasbourg (FRA) 8-10 CSM Oradea (ROU) (1-3, 2-3, 0-2, 5-2)
Novi Beograd and Oradea both secured their respective berths in the Group Stage.
The Serbs downed Spandau, while the Romanians did enough to beat Strasbourg, a day after their great comeback against the Germans.
The opening period in the clash between NBG and Spandau was pure entertainment – at least for the spectators, who saw six goals apiece, while the coaches were left wondering if the defences would start clicking at all.
Then, after 8-8, the Serbs raised their level at the back while continuing to score at the other end, and a 4-0 rush broke the Germans.
Spandau’s problems deepened further in the third as they lost three players with three fouls, while Novi managed the game professionally and stretched the gap to six goals before the final quarter, leading 18-12.
From there, they saw out the game with ease and advanced to the next round as expected.
That result also laid the red carpet for Oradea to march into the Group Stage with a win over Strasbourg in the following match.
The hosts did really well for three periods as they built a comfortable 8-3 lead with some great defending, shutting out the French for 11 minutes.
Then, after 9-3, Strasbourg quickly scored three in a span of 1:42, though Levente Vancsik’s action shot restored some calm at 10-6 with 4:31 on the clock.
The French could score two more in the remaining time, but the last one arrived with 50 seconds left and never seriously threatened Oradea’s victory, which also sent them through to the Group Stage.
Group B
(Tbilisi)
CN Sabadell (ESP) 20-12 Budva BR (MNE) (7-5, 6-2, 5-2, 2-3)
A-Polo Management (GEO) 17-21 AN Brescia (ITA) (5-4, 5-5, 4-4, 3-8)
Brescia had to dig deep to come back from three goals down against hosts A-Polo, but in the fourth quarter the Italians’ skill and physical superiority prevailed.
They’re through to the Group Stage, while the Georgians now face a do-or-die clash with Sabadell on Sunday.
The Spaniards bounced back from their defeat against Brescia by trouncing Budva with some sparkling offensive play.
The Montenegrins kept pace in the first period, though Sabadell already led 7-5. Then came the decisive second period, when the Spanish added six more goals while their defence limited Budva to two, opening up a commanding 13-7 lead.
The game then turned into an exclusion feast, with 26 exclusions called against Sabadell and six of their players fouled out by the end. Still, their man-down defence stood firm in the second half to keep Budva at arm’s length.
Hosts A-Polo Sport Management produced a brilliant performance against Brescia, at least for three periods.
They scored three goals in a row after 1-2 to set the tone, somewhat rocking the Italians’ confidence, and the home side’s offence continued to deliver as A-Polo led 10-9 at half-time.
Back-to-back centre shots early in the third gave the Georgians a stunning 12-9 lead, and they maintained that advantage until late in the period, leading 14-11 with 1:04 remaining.
The game grew more intense by the minute, with review followed by review and red card after red card.
The referees called 41 exclusions in total as they tried to keep the game under control, while Mario del Basso’s double brought Brescia back to 14-13.
The Italians quickly equalised from a penalty early in the fourth, and the back-and-forth continued until 16-16, with 4:21 left to play.
It seemed inevitable that whoever could find a way to kill an attack or two would win this one.
After Brescia’s newly arrived scoring machine Oliver Leinweber struck his fifth of the night, the Italian defence finally denied a man-down attack before scoring from their next two possessions as well.
A-Polo, stunned, had ran out of heroics, while Leinweber and Stefano Guerrato added further goals to complete a 5-0 run from the favourites, sealing Brescia’s spot in the Group Stage once again.
Group C
(Split)
Panathinaikos AC (GRE) 9-7 Endo Plus Service Honved (2-1, 2-1, 3-3, 2-2)
Unlike most of the matches elsewhere, which routinely produced 30+ goals, this was a real water polo battle between two organised teams, with patience and risk-free solutions the order of the day.
The Greeks jumped to a 2-0 lead while killing two man-downs before Honved broke the ice and then denied Panathinaikos in back-to-back extras.
After 2-1, the game turned into an extreme defensive battle, with no goals for the following 9:40 minutes.
Both goalies, American national team netminder Adrian Weinberg and Hungary’s Kristof Csoma, came up with great stops, while the field players also did a splendid job, delivering several blocks.
Viktor Vadovics’ one-timer brought Honved back to level with 2:41 to go until the middle break, but Nikolaos Kopeliadis’ fine finish in a man-up gave the lead back to Panathinaikos. Forty-five seconds later, Dimitrios Skoumpakis’ blast doubled their advantage for 4-2.
Honved’s lefties, Vadovics and Lazar Vickovic, kept the team close for a while in the third, but the Greeks eventually found a way through the Magyars’ wall-like defence, with two players next to the goalie, as Dimitrios Nikolaidis’ great shot restored the two-goal gap at 6-4.
Bendeguz Ekler also hit one from the perimeter to make it 6-5, then came three more minutes of hard battling.
This time, though, the Greeks struck first, as Aristeidis Chalyvopoulos netted an extra to make it 7-5 with one quarter remaining.
They needed just 55 seconds and two pinpoint action shots from Nikolaos Papasifakis and Chalyvopoulos early in the fourth to go 9-5 up, and in a game like this it was hard to see Honved bridging that gap.
In fact, only Honved scored in the remaining six and a half minutes, but they managed just two goals, with the second coming 1:21 from time – too late and too few.
The second win booked Panathinaikos’ berth in the Group Stage and cemented their position at the top of the group.
Honved, meanwhile, face a tough challenge on Sunday – a decisive match against hosts Jadran, just 15 hours after this particularly gruelling encounter.
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Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics