GROUP A
– CC Ortigia (ITA) v Pro Recco (ITA) 7-10
Stefano
Piccardo, coach, Ortigia
“It was
a good match. We managed to keep up with them until the last quarter, by that
time they were two goals up. However, I am extremely proud of my whole team.
Step by step we are growing. We have some young players who are not used to
this, the level of the Champions League. Tomorrow we are going to have another
difficult match but we will rest now a bit and think about it later.”
Valentino
Gallo, player, Ortigia:
“It was
a really tough game, tougher than the one yesterday. Had we played like this
yesterday we would have won. They are more complete as a team. They have two
strong centre forwards whereas we only have one. Once he was out it was
difficult for us to cover everything and our game suffered while theirs grew
stronger. Hopefully next time we can show more and win. Compliments to Recco on
their victory.”
Gabriel
Hernandez, coach, Recco:
“This
year is going to be like this, there won’t be easy games for us. We must accept
that and grow together as a team. Tomorrow ‘s match against Spandau won’t be
easy, they never give up so we must approach it with 100% focus. It is not an
easy path but we must continue to work and improve.”
Francesco
di Fulvio, player, Recco:
“It was
a beautiful match to watch and play I think. We knew it wouldn’t be easy. They
know how to play and it was a derby worth of the Champions League. They played
very well, they have excellent players, an experienced goalkeeper and it’s in
their mentality to never give up. Congratulations to my team as well.
Tomorrow’s match will be the same, a demanding one.”
GROUP B
– Hannover (GER) v Barceloneta (ESP) 8-16
Karsten
Seehafer, coach, Hannover:
“We
played our last game in September, ten weeks ago. Since then only training –and
now we immediately had to play against one of the fastest teams in the field.
In the wake of this, I think we did some good things but also conceded a couple
of easy goals and missed some man-ups where we should have done better. We
expected that the players’ spirits will be high, that could somewhat help us in
the given situation and the team did that part well. Now we had to focus on our
following matches, none of them will be easier.”
Aleksandar
Radovic, captain, Hannover:
“It was
a long time ago when we played a game and that didn’t make our job easy today.
But even if this happened, we need to reach a certain level as we will play in
the Final Eight so we have to learn from this game and try to do better in the
next. Of course, we knew that Barceloneta and Ferencvaros are the favourites
here, they are better than us, for our team the game with Jadran is the most
important, we have to win that match fore sure.”
Chus
Martin, coach, Barceloneta:
“We
played the last Champions League match nine months ago so it is great to be
back and to win this match. It was not as easy as it looked like, my focus was
on our defence, which worked well, eight goals are fine at this level. I am
satisfied with our offence too, we scored some great goals. I want to see a
good rhythm from my players and today at some stages we had the right one.”
Alberto
Munarriz, player, Barceloneta:
“We are
very happy for this victory, this is the most important thing, not my six
goals. Our last Champions League match was nine months ago so we were very
eager to play in this competition again. The first match is always a challenge,
you are supposed to play as a team but sometimes it can be difficult after such
a long break. I think the team performed very well today, we want to push as
hard as possible to close down the match.”
GROUP A
– Spandau (GER) v. Olympiacos (GER) 9-13
Petar
Kovacevic, coach, Spandau:
“We
made the same mistakes we had committed yesterday. At the beginning we reacted
better but then conceded 4 goals at the beginning of the second quarter in a
period of maybe 2 minutes, I’m not sure. That was the key to the game as
Olympiacos is a team that knows how to close down a match after such a break.
We have to face three former winners of the Champions League in three days. At
this moment we are just not ready for that.”
Maurice
Juengling, player, Spandau:
“Unfortunately,
we lost another match. I think we reacted better than yesterday. We were in the
game during the first one and a half quarters but then lost our game. They
scored too many easy goals, had better control. We conceded four goals quickly
and the match was finished. Tomorrow against Recco it’s not going to be easy
but we can play a good game where we have nothing to lose. We can only make a
surprise. Tomorrow is a new day.”
Theodoros
Vlachos, coach, Olympiacos:
“I am
very satisfied. Two wins in two days – this is what we wished for. Tomorrow we
face Jug, our traditional rival by now. We want to win again. We are aware of
the quality Jug possesses and that match it is going to be quite different than
the first two games. We are very motivated and our spirits are high.”
Konstantinos
Genidounias, player, Olympiacos:
“Coming
here we absolutely wanted to win the first two games in order to be contenders
for the Final8. Wins against Ortigia and Spandau were those two wins. Tomorrow
we will face Jug and that is going to be a very difficult meet. They have the
speed but in the end I think the man-up and man-down is going to decide the
match as it is usual these days in water polo.”
GROUP B
– Jadran (MNE) v Ferencvaros (HUN) 2-11
Petar
Radanovic, coach, Jadran
“Of
course, this is a new team, we lost five key players so I have to be happy to
see our young ones playing against the top teams of Europe like Ferencvaros.
Well, I was not satisfied sometimes as we made some unnecessary mistakes but we
are in a learning process so this team needs time to play more even matches at this
level.”
Marko
Petkovic, captain, Jadran:
“We
knew the match would be definitely tough for our young team against
Ferencvaros, the champion of Europe. We suffered unexpected losses in the
Montenegrin league, lately we are not playing the typical game of Jadran and we
are definitely not in good shape, I don’t know why. We are trying to make
things go better, we watch videos of our game to change some bad stuff we do. I
hope that the game against Hannover tomorrow will be better than today.”
Zsolt
Varga, coach, Ferencvaros
“We had
some problems in the previous ten days or so, those mostly came because of the
injuries, key players weren’t really ready and that left its mark on our league
matches which we lost. We did not do a miracle just talked through what we had
to simplify in our game to make it more effective, what we needed to fine-tune
in order to raise our level. I think found the solutions for today, the team
did well, we played like a team, did not make big mistakes and that led to this
easy win.”
Denes
Varga, captain, Ferencvaros
“We
conceded a load of goals in our previous domestic games which alone would have
felt awful but the worst of all was the way we played those matches. The whole
was not worthy of our club and of ourselves either. Our self-esteem was hurt,
especially in our second loss to OSC. This was in our minds when we came here
today, though I’ll be honest, I believed it was going to be a much tougher game
so I do hope we can keep this level tomorrow against Brescia as well.”
Toni Nemet,
player, Ferencvaros
“I
think we recovered from the shocks we had recently and today we offered a very
high level performance. Our defence worked much better than any time in the
past two weeks and we never lost our focus. This is how we have to continue
here as we face a much tougher game against Brescia tomorrow.”
GROUP A
– Jug (CRO) v Marseille (FRA) 11-10
Vjekoslav
Kobescak, coach, Jug:
“It was
a good match. Apart from the very beginning, we took control of the game and
closed it down even if they did come close at the end. They are a very good mix
of players, they swim a lot. Tomorrow is going to be a different type of game I
think since Olympiacos has two very good centre forwards. We would like to
close the tournament with a third win.”
Marin
Tomasovic, player, Jug:
“I’m
happy as I’m fairly new to the Champions League and these are some of my first
goals for Jug in this competition. It was a good match. Apart from 0-1 at the
beginning we took control of the game. They are a very good team. I am really
happy that we finally get to play even in these conditions with everything
going on with the virus. The rhythm is high but I’m really enjoying it.”
Milos
Scepanovic, coach, Marseille:
“I
would like to congratulate Jug. They did exactly what they are known for, with
routine and experience. It is not easy to find answers for that. However, we
managed to regroup ourselves and come back, but it was too late. All in all I’m
satisfied, though I have to be modest and realistic. It’s never good to lose
but our approach is the right one I think when playing against the greats of
water polo. It takes time to grow. Tomorrow we finally face an opponent of the
same level as ours and are going for a win.”
Thomas
Vernoux, player, Marseille:
“It was
a tough game. We started off terribly but then started to play our game in the
second half of the match. Our reaction was good but it was too late. We were
hoping to do a good tournament and expected to win but we still can’t beat the
top teams. Tomorrow we have to win.”
GROUP B
– Dinamo (GEO) v Brescia (ITA) 9-15
Zurab
Rurua, coach, Dinamo
“We
didn’t play a lot of matches, and in the Champions League our last game was in
March against Marseille at this level, so it wasn’t an easy task. We had a good
start but especially in the third period we conceded three or four goals from
counter-attacks. In games like this you cannot let that, these stupid goals
were really painful. Otherwise I think we had a good game, so I’m not 100 per
cent satisfied, but let’s say 85 per cent.”
Marco
Jelaca, captain, Dinamo
I
think, we can be satisfied with our performance, especially in the first two
periods. We are a new team, this is only the second season we play in the
Champions League. I think the first period was really good, but we didn’t have
as many games as the other teams so first we need to get in shape to play even
better.”
Edvin
Caldarera, assistant coach, Brescia (acting as head coach)
“It was
important to have a good start in this tournament and we managed to achieve
that. It wasn’t an easy game, we had some problems at the beginning but we did
much better later, we had good pace and clinched these three points. It was
good to be the head coach for this game, but Alessandro Bovo will return for
the next game so we will be at full strength.”
Chirstian
Presciutti, captain, Brescia
“After
a month with no matches this first one was kind of breaking the ice. Play by
play we found our game and I think we did pretty well and we tested a lot of
new things for our next matches. It wasn’t easy to play without our head coach
in this first match, it was a bit different but we did well at the end.”
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