1. We have to travel back eight years in time to find a match where Olympiacos’ offence was left in the cold. In April 2017, they lost 4-6 to Szolnok at home (the Hungarians went on to win the title that season). Since then, there was one other match when the Greeks scored only six in Piraeus, but at least they beat Jug 6-5 in that group stage encounter.
Now, big credit goes to Novi Beograd for switching off the powerful Greek scoring machine. Their plan was already visible in the first period, which saw no goals (this was the first 0-0 opener in four years in the Champions League) and the Serbs did a brilliant job in the following quarters too.
Their young goalie Milan Glusac was tremendous, as he stopped the first 11 shots, and even though he went 4/9 in the remaining time, it was still good enough for an incredible 75% saving percentage – a game winning stat in modern water polo.
In fact, the Greeks had 24 shots in total, and four players took 22 of those. They are the master shooters of Olympiacos, but this time they were far from their top form – at the same time, the Serbs did everything to let them not take clear shots.
The numbers tell it all – Genidounias was 2/9, Fountoulis 1/4, Zalanki 1/5 and Papanastasiou 0/4 – 4 for 22 in total, no wonder Olympiacos could only score five goals in this match.
2. Injuries and illness took their toll on Jadran Split, as they could only field nine players and two goalies in Marseille. Until they had no fuel left in the tank, they managed to keep up with Marseille – however, they ran out of gas in the last 5:30 minutes.
Two players fewer at this level is a crucial disadvantage and the Croats were unable to counterbalance that (add that they lost one player with three majors early in the third and a second one 2:30 minutes from time).
The French pushed hard and at the end they could break their rivals with a 3-0 run to win the match despite being down 8-9 in the fourth.
Marseille have always been formidable at home, while Jadran have struggled in the Quarter Final Stage. Last season they lost all six matches, now they’ve fallen in the first two rounds, so far standing 0-8 in the crucial phase where the Final Four spots are up for grabs.
3. Ferencvaros were really strong last season and managed to break Recco’s reign at the end – but at least their matches in the Quarter Final Stage were really exciting. They had five wins, with four of them by two goals and one by a single goal, so each clash – against Olympiacos, Barceloneta and Brescia – were nailbiters.
This year they are yet to play a really close match. They had something similar in Split, when they had to fight back from four goals down, but at the end even that comeback looked easy – and it was a game where nothing was at stake.
Now, in the Quarter Final Stage again, they met Barceloneta in the opening round in the battle of the unbeaten sides – and many envisioned a thriller, instead, Fradi blew the Spaniards away 18-10.
On Day 2 earlier this week, they faced a tough visit to Savona – at least on paper. But it ended in another rout, 9-17.
The title-holders have now blasted eight-goal wins against their two strongest rivals in the group – indeed, their management maybe should start checking the flight tickets to Malta.
4. Another note on Fradi’s great away win in Savona – again, the numbers, as some of the stats were simply incredible. Their shooting percentage in the first half was really out of this world.
They took only 10 shots, but all were on target and nine of those ended up in the goal – which means they were shooting with 90% precision.
The percentage ultimately dropped a little, but not that much. After making 10/9, they were 14/8 in the second half, so their total, 24/17 stood at 71%.
Even if Savona are not the strongest team from Italy, producing that 71% in an away match in Italy is a true testament of FTC’s current level. This time their man-up was the lethal weapon as they converted 12 out of 16, another stat which is absolutely outstanding in modern water polo.
And just to keep the usual count update: Fradi are now 33-0 so far this season, across all competitions.
5. As expected, Barceloneta bounced back from their humiliating defeat in Budapest on Day 1. The Spanish came up with a flawless performance against Oradea and managed to better the season record for the biggest winning margin.
Till Wednesday, CNAB’s 20-8 demolition of Jadran Herceg Novi in the Group Stage was the biggest blast (topping the stats due to the number of goals they scored – as FTC also beat Radnicki 16-4), now this 17-4 blitz against the Romanians is the new record.
It’s a bit ironic that while nine of the 11 field players managed to score, the two exceptions were Alberto Munarriz and Felipe Perrone.
In the past, these two delivered the bulk of the goals for Barceloneta, but this time they had a modest performance; as for Munarriz, it was understandable as he returned after a very long injury, while Perrone had four steals to highlight his always valuable contribution.
Day three of the Quarter Final Group Stage takes place on Tuesday/Wednesday 18th/19th March. You can watch all the Champions League Men action live on www.euroaquaticstv.com and stay up-to-date with live results/tables and real-time updates through the European Aquatics App. Download it here: Google Play.