Courtesy: LEN
Expect the unexpected: Recco demolished Jug in the big match in Ostia to hand the Croats their worst-ever beating (18-3) in Champions League history. Marseille stunned Olympiacos to earn its most valuable win during their tenure in the competition. Title-holder Ferencvaros looked a bit weak without its three top players but somehow found the way to edge out a full- strength Barceloneta at the end. The German teams are also on the rise: after finishing 0/6 combined in December, Spandau claimed a brilliant victory over Ortigia and Hannover beat Dinamo in an extraordinary match where the Georgians could score their first goal 1:35 minutes before the end.
Group A (Ostia) –
Round 5: Spandau 04 Berlin (GER) v CC Ortigia (ITA) 12-6, CN Marseille v
Olympiacos Piraeus 9-8, Pro Recco (ITA) v Jug Adriatic Osiguranje Dubrovnik
(CRO) 18-3
Standings: 1. Recco
15, 2. Jug 12, 3. Olympiacos 6, 4. Marseille 4, 5. Spandau 4, 6. Ortigia 3.
Group B (Budapest) –
Round 4: FTC-Telekom Budapest (HUN) v Zodiac CN Atletic Barcelona (ESP) 11-10,
Waspo 98 Hannover (GER) v Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) 10-3, Jadran Herceg Novi (MNE) v
AN Brescia (ITA) 6-11
Standings: 1.
Barceloneta 9, 2. Ferencvaros 9, 2. Brescia 9, 4. Jadran 3, 5. Dinamo 3, 6.
Hannover 3
Water polo fans were
eager to watch the highlighted game of this week, Recco v Jug – two greats with
plenty of outstanding matches between them, including two semi-finals from 2016
and 2017 when Jug upset the Italians who hit back in 2018. Well, they might
have watched the encounter in disappointment – Recco was there, Jug was not. At
least the Jug we all know.
The Croatians got
their first blow right in the first period which they lost 4-0. They could
score their first goal at 5-0 after 9:19 minutes, from a penalty. What came
after was a nightmare for them. They were unable to send the ball behind their
compatriot Marko Bijac who posted some great saves but the hosts’ defence also
did a tremendous job while the bewildered Croats had one miss after the other –
if they could take a shot at all. The total number of shots was telling
(32-22), but even more the shots hitting the goals (25-12). As time was
passing, Jug was sinking deeper and deeper and had to face the possibility of
suffering their worst-ever defeat at the European stage.
It stood 14-1 after
three periods and despite Bijac was substituted, it continued the same way
until 16-1. After netting a single penalty goal in 27:35 minutes, the Croats
managed to score two from action but there were two more in Recco’s bag to
finish it 18-3 – indeed a historical loss for the four-time champion.
Marseille finally
made it: after three tight losses in December and a hard- fought draw against
Spandau here in Monday, they claimed their first win. Stunningly, it came
against 2018 winner and 2019 runner-up Olympiacos whose composure seems to have
been weakened recently. The Greeks missed two man-ups in the opening period
which ended in a rare 0-0, then came the French with three fast goals in two
minutes early in the second. That woke up Olympiacos, though they needed 12:50
minutes to score their first but soon they added two more for 3-3. Still,
Vladan Spaic’s fine centre action gave the lead back to Marseille by halftime.
The third followed a
similar pattern: the French rushed ahead for 6-3 in 40 seconds but Olympiacos
tightened up, staged another 3-0 surge – all goals came from 6 on 5s – and a
quick exchange of action goals settled the scoreline at 7-7 before the final
period. Again, in the fourth Marseille had a great opening, two brilliant
man-up finishes from Ante Vukicevic and Andrija Prlainovic respectively gave
them a 9-7 lead early – and that was enough. In the remaining 6:38 minutes they
couldn’t score more but the Greeks’ lonely goal came only 68 seconds from time,
in a 6 on 4. They had one more chance for a counter, but the pass from the
Greek goalie was too long from the back and his colleague Dejan Lazovic stole
it at 5m at the other end.
It seems that Spandau
regained its strength as the Germans stunned Ortigia in the second day’s
opening match in Ostia. They were out of shape in the first tournament and
suffered big defeats and even though the German national team crashed out from
the Olympic Qualification Tournament, at least the players had some playing
time – something they badly missed in 2020 – and the Berlin club benefitted
from that. Plus its Hungarian goalie Laszlo Baksa came up with a spirited
performance (12/18, 66.7%), delivered four huge saves in a row in the decisive
phase of the match when Spandau jumped to a 7-2 lead with three connecting
goals.
Ortigia seemed to be
a bit worn out after its heroic but lost battle to Jug on Monday – they were
unable to score for 8:51 minutes and that cost them the game. They had a better
spell early in the third when they came back to 8-5 but they didn’t have the
necessary sharpness to carry on and Spandau could keep the gap at four goals
before the last period. Losing their desire, the Sicilians could not score in
the last 11:24 minutes and went down by six – based on the previous rounds,
that a huge blow for them: instead of improving their position to fight for the
Final 8, they were dropped to the bottom in the ranks.
The other group also
offered some unexpected stories on its first day. Title- holder Ferencvaros
entered the second bubble with the most worrying signs: Covid-19 tore the team
apart once more in mid-January, was missing three key players including captain
Denes Varga who is still in quarantine, so many expected that once Barceloneta,
the dominating side in December, took control, the game would turn into a
one-sided contest.
From time to time,
Barceloneta earned a two-goal lead but could never expand it to three and
Ferencvaros somehow always found the way to score and held on despite they were
trailing for most of the time. Then deep into the third they finally equalised
for 7-7 and even had a man-up after a time- out but could not take a shot at
the end while Barceloneta hit back with two goals in 59 seconds for 7-9 and
that looked like a turning point. The home side, however, was far from being
broken and in a span in 50 seconds it was even again, still inside the third.
The fourth brought an
enormous battle: Barceloneta lacked its usual speed which might have killed the
tiring Magyars, still, with 3:35 to go Alberto Munarriz’s 6m shot hit the back
of the net for 9-10. But the psychological advantage was gone immediately as
Gergo Zalanki saved a dying possession with a fine action shot from the wing
and soon Ferencvaros had a second try to convert a man-up after a time-out
while the score was tied. This time they succeeded, Tamas Sedlmayer sent the
ball home 2:06 from time and the Spaniards couldn’t respond to that. Their last
chance in a man-up was denied by the hosts’ second goalie Andras Gardonyi – he
offered 8 saves, Dani Lopez had only 4, Barceloneta was 2 for 11 in 6 on 5s –
so Ferencvaros took the lead only once in this game: at the very end. That left
no undefeated team in this group.
Dinamo Tbilisi caused
an upset in the first stage by beating Jadran so they were the favoured ones
against Hannover which had three rather bad encounters in December. Then the
game was a total denial of all expectations: Hannover was the dominating side
while the Georgians seemed to get a special vaccine – against scoring. They
could not net a goal from the cleanest opportunities, even from a 6 on 4 after
a time-out. No other team in the league had to wait so long for its first goal
in a game in the group stage: it came 1:35 minutes from time, at 9-0 – until
that Dinamo was 0/30 in front. (Previously, AZC Alphen had the lowest scoring
match when the Dutch lost 19-1 in Recco but scored that goal 5:56 minutes
before the end in the 2017- 18 season.) They added two more to ruin Moritz
Schenkel’s perfect record – the German goalie was 18/18 before conceding three
in the last 95 seconds.
Only the third game
between Jadran and Brescia did not offer surprises – the Italian side kept the
game under control right from the beginning and jumped to a 1-5 lead. The young
Montenegrin side fought bravely and in towards the end of the second quarter
they climbed back to 3-5 when the Italians’ level of concentration dropped
significantly and only Marco del Luongo’s saves kept Jadran in two goals
distance.
Brescia’s ‘sleeping’
period in front lasted 9:58 minutes, then Niccolo Gitto netted a 6 on 5 from
close range for 6-3. At least their defence worked well in the meantime as the
Montenegrins were unable to create any danger, not even from their two man-ups
late in this period which ticked down without any shots. After the second miss,
Giacopo Alesiani finished the ensuing counter for 3-7, redirecting the match
onto its calm path.
Stats were
highlighting the differences: Brescia outshot Jadran 27-13 in three periods,
while Petar Tesanovic had more saves, 13, than the number of shots del Luongo
had to deal with altogether during this time (9). It also showed why it was a
bit of a wonder that only four goals separated the sides. The gap didn’t grow
significantly later as Jadran could find the back of the net in quick
succession after 13:09 minutes and Brescia also lacked the precision in its
passing.
This result divided
the group after four rounds visibly, the three favourites have 9 points
respectively, while the other three earned 3 points apiece so far.
Fixtures for
Wednesday
Group A, Round 6:
15.15 Marseille v Recco, 17.45 Jug v Spandau, 20.15 Ortigia v Olympiacos
Group B, Round 5:
14.00 Brescia v Hannover, 16.30 Dinamo v FTC, 19.00 Jadran v Barceloneta
LEN offers free live
streaming from each game – from Ostia, you can listen to Ratko Rudic’s expert
commentary during the top matches as the greatest water polo coach in history
happily joined us for this tournament!
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