Brescia stuns Ferencvaros, Jug comes back from 2-5
to beat Olympiacos
Brescia pulled off a brilliant win over
title-holder Ferencvaros in Budapest to stage the first real upset of the
season. In Rome, Ortigia wrote history with a surprising victory over
Marseille, then in the battle of the former champions Jug came back from three
goals down to beat Olympiacos in a thrilling encounter.
Group A – Ostia (ITA)
Round 3: CN Marseille (FRA) v CC Ortigia (ITA)
10-11, Olympiacos Piraeus (GRE) v Jug Adriatic Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO) 8-9,
Pro Recco (ITA) v Spandau 04 Berlin (GER) 19-6
Standings: 1. Recco 9, 2. Jug 9, 3. Olympiacos 6,
4. Ortigia 3, 5. Marseille 0, 6. Spandau 0
Group B – Budapest (HUN)
Round 2: Zodiac CNA Barceloneta (ESP) v Dinamo
Tbilisi (GEO) 17-5, FTCTelekom Budapest (HUN) v AN Brescia (ITA) 7-10, Jadran
Herceg Novi (MNE) v Waspo 98 Hannover (GER) 12-11
Standings: 1. Barceloneta 6, 2. Brescia 6, 3.
Ferencvaros 3, 4. Jadran 3, 5. Hannover 0, 6. Dinamo 0
In Rome, a thriller kicked off the afternoon
session as Ortigia clinched a historical first win in the Champions League. It
was a huge effort by the newcomers since their rival Marseille had offered
quite promising performances against Recco and Jug. However, it seems that
those tight losses also burnt much of their reserves. The French side had a
better spell early in the third when they netted three in a row to jump to a
7-5 lead after 4-5 but the Sicilians weren’t done and by the end of the third
they were back to even (8-8). Then in the fourth, after a quick exchange of
goals, Ortigia could score twice in 1:11 minutes and even if Marseille pulled
one back with 3:18 remaining, they could not convert their last two man-ups.
Thus the French had to settle for a third tight loss, a disappointing outcome
for a team with great new signings and high hopes.
The second battle offered even more excitements as
two former champions clashed in the big match of the day. 2016 winner Jug and
2018 gold medallist Olympiacos produced a brilliant encounter where the Greeks
dominated the first half and took a 5-2 lead. In the third they earned a
penalty but Toni Popadic stopped Stylianos Argyropoulos’ shot and that proved
to be a turning point. Jug started flying while the Greeks were frozen, they
could not score in the entire third period. In fact the Croats staged a 0-4
rush while shutting out their rival for 9:30 minutes while coming back from 5-2
to 5-6. Though Olympiacos managed to halt its sinking at 7-7 but only
temporarily. Jug netted two in 57 seconds, Paulo Obradovic 4th hit gave his
team a 7-9 lead and Nicolas Kapotsis’ fine action goal came too late for the
Greeks.
After two tighter-than-usual matches, 8-time winner
Recco enjoyed a peaceful evening against Spandau. The two sides weren’t on the
same level, the Italians blasted their opponent in eight minutes and after 5-0
only the difference was in question. It ended up 19-6, a record score and win
for the current series.
In Group B, Barceloneta didn’t leave anything for
chance and with a 5-0 opening quarter the Spaniards quickly put an end to the
contest against Dinamo. They had a minor lapse in concentration when the
Georgians netted three consecutive goals early in the third to come back to
9-5, but Barceloneta then staged a 8-0 finish to claim the largest win of the
new season up until Recco blew Spandau away later in the evening.
In the game of the day in the Duna Arena Brescia
began its quest with a missed penalty against Ferencvaros but it turned out
that the Italians could even afford that luxury as soon they built a massive
1-5 lead. The title-holder Hungarians struggled to beat Marco del Luongo in
Brescia’s goal, the national team’s goalie produced a magnificent 77.8% saving
percentage (7 catches on 9 shots) in the first half, while his teammates netted
some fine goals from counters and man-ups.
Soon the Hungarians seemed to gain their momentum,
del Luongo couldn’t have a hand on their next four shots so late in the third
it stood 6-7 – but Brescia came up with a devastating response. Angelos
Vlachopoulos netted a man-up with 23 seconds before the last break and after a
steal Niccolo Gitto finished the counter in the dying seconds to switch back
Brescia’s three-goal lead in 21 seconds. That was too much to handle of the
reigning champions, though they pulled one back early in the fourth but could
not come closer (their man-up didn’t work at all, were 0 for 7) and Vincenzo Renzuto’s
fine finish in a 6 on 5 sealed the Italians’ great win in Budapest.
The last clash featuring Jadran and Hannover was
just as entertaining, producing twists and turns throughout the hour. The
Montenegrins took the better start to go 5-2 and 6-3 up but the F8 host
launched a fine comeback and caught up its rival at 7-7. After 8-7 the Germans
had their best spell as they netted three straight goals in 1:18 minutes late
in the third to go 8-10 up. Hannover seemed to have got the upper hand but
Kanstantsin Averka rode in to save his team, netted one inside the third,
buried a penalty in the fourth and finished a man-up with 3:44 to go for 11-10.
Hannover had a meltdown at this stage, missed three man-ups and couldn’t score
for 9:07 minutes while Jadran netted one more to extend the rush to 4-0. Ivan
Nagaev pulled one back 38 seconds from time and the Germans went for a 7 on 6
in the last 9 seconds after a time-out but couldn’t create a real danger at the
end.
Fixtures, Thursday
Group B, Round 3: 14.00 Dinamo v Jadran, 16.30
Waspo v Ferencvaros, 19.00 Brescia v Barceloneta
More details:
No comments:
Post a Comment