Recco is the first
team to qualify for the Final 8 right after six rounds though the Italians had
to go through some tense moments before they could secure a tough win over
Marseille. Jug managed to find some ground after the humiliating defeat from
Recco on Tuesday and the Croats upended Spandau, and Olympiacos also bounced
back to beat Ortigia. In Group B the three favourites all did a clean job, each
has 12 points while the other three trail by nine behind them.
FLASH QUOTES
Group A, Round 6: CN
Marseille (FRA) v Pro Recco (ITA) 8-10, Jug Adriatic Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO)
v Spandau 04 Berlin (GER) 12-10, CC Ortigia (ITA) v Olympiacos Piraeus (GRE)
8-10
Standings: 1. Recco
18, 2. Jug 15, 3. Olympiacos 9, 4. Marseille 4, 5. Spandau 4, 6. Ortigia 3
Group B, Round 5: AN
Brescia (ITA) v Waspo 98 Hannover (GER) 19-11, Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) v
FTC-Telekom Budapest (HUN) 4-11, Jadran Herceg Novi (MNE) v Zodiac Atletic
Barceloneta 9-12
Standings: 1.
Barceloneta 12, 2. Brescia 12, 3. Ferencvaros 12, 4. Hannover 3, 5. Jadran 3,
6. Dinamo 3
In less than 17 hours
after thrashing arch-rival Jug 18-3, Recco was back for a game with Marseille
which was the start of the second half of the prelims. In December Recco had to
dig deep to beat the French – it stood 8-8 after three periods but the Italians
could make it at the end, a late goal from Aaron Younger secured their 11-9
win. This time the game took a different path as Recco – looking more powerful
now than in the winter – rushed to 3-7 lead by halftime. The third brought more
fight for a while and a single goal from Marseille up until the last minute
when three goals came in the last 44 seconds and Recco held on for 5-9.
However, the final
period saw a fine surge from the French while they managed to shut out Recco by
killing three man-downs and making three man-ups – and with 2:10 to go it was
8-9. Dejan Lazic was amazing, delivered five saves in a row (he had 11 in
total, Marko Bijac in Recco’s goal was less effective this time, he was 5/13),
so Marseille had to possessions to go even but could not take a shot from either
and 27 seconds from time it was Younger again who secured Recco’s win. It was a
strange situation, the shotclock ticked down but the French looked for the
counter and left the ball behind – a turnover foul was called and the Aussie
could beat Lazovic with ease.
In the next game Jug
needed some time to settle in the pool and recover from the huge punch floored
them in the previous evening. The Croats took a 2-0 lead against Spandau
quickly but the Germans kept their fine level from the previous two matches,
came back to 3-3 in the first. What’s more, their Russian rocket Dmitrii Kholod
carried on his one-man show in the second, completed a hat-trick to give his
side a 3-5 lead. Before getting into bigger trouble again, Jug killed a
man-down and halted its scoreless phase after 8:10 minutes. That was an
ice-breaker as the Croatians added two more still in the second to go 6-5
ahead.
They finally took
control in the third by netting two in 92 seconds after 6-6 and after four
minutes of battling they scored again for 9-6 and that gave them the
psychological edge. Even though Spandau pushed hard and kept coming back, for
9-8, then for 11-10 after 11-8 but the Croats regained their confidence and
calm, thanks to some brilliant goals from Loren Fatovic and Anastasios
Papanastasiou – both netted 4. And in this tense moment, at 11- 10, an
immediate response arrived from Hrvoje Benic in the form of a fine shot with
2:34 from time and that was more than enough this afternoon.
Winning by two became
a common feature by the end of this day in Ostia as Olympiacos also downed
Ortigia with this margin. Just like the preceding matches, the evening clash
was tense and tight all the way till the end. Though the Italians never led in
the match, Olympiacos found it really hard to build a solid lead. The Greeks’
first fine spell occurred in the second period when they jumped to 3-5 from 3-3
while managed to kill two man-downs. Ortigia responded well though, and early
in the third they came back to 5-5 – but the Greeks kept on rolling and staged
a 3-0 rush in the following five minutes. They converted 3/3 man-ups and led
5-8 despite missing a penalty en route.
The Sicilians could
pull one back but Georgios Dervisis opened the fourth with an action goal.
Simone Rossi put away an extra with 5:13 remaining for 7-9 and the next three
minutes brought a ‘who-scores-first’ scenario. Ortigia had a man-up to really
heat up the match but the ball hit the post and Dervisis became the Greeks’
hero by scoring from the ensuing counter for 7-10 to close down the contest.
Valentino Gallo’s goal came too late 1:15 from time, so Olympiacos claimed a
calming win while the newcomers lost their third straight match in this second
tourney.
In Group B in
Budapest, Brescia kicked off the ‘Favourites’ Day’ in style by netting 19
against Hannover, a sharp contrast to the Germans game from the previous day
when they could maintain their clean sheet for 30:25 minutes against Dinamo. In
the first half the Germans did a fine job, though Brescia ruled the game but their
rivals kept up and in the last minute before the middle break they had a man-up
at 7-5. It was wasted without a shot and Brescia scored from the ensuing
counter 6 seconds from time to make it 8-5 (instead of 7-6) and according to
the post-game interviews, that was a turning point. Though Hannover could
reduce the gap to two twice in the third but after 9-7 Brescia netted three in
a row and from 12-7 there was no way back for Hannover – indeed they conceded
six more in the final period when the reserve goalie came in.
Ferencvaros’ moral
had got a huge boost after their win against Barceloneta – perhaps even
surprised themselves on Tuesday – which was bad news for Dinamo whose scoring
woes had been painfully visible a day earlier against Hannover. At least the
Georgians didn’t have to wait their first one until the very end – could score
after 11 minutes but that was the lonely positive happening to them in the
first half. It came at 0-5 and the Hungarians offered a pretty effective
playing scheme – no rush, earn man-ups with patience, convert them and in the
first half that worked well: they had four shots, netted all, plus a penalty
and three goals from action to gain a 1-8 lead. After the middle break the
title-holders switched back to ‘power-saving’ mood, did not force anything in
front, earned two man-ups per period, scored only three in the second half,
while Dinamo found some rhythm so the match was a bit more even but lacked the
real excitements.
Something similar was
expected in the closing session, instead Jadran came up with a heroic effort
against Barceloneta and kept the Spaniards under pressure for three periods. Up
until halftime the group leader couldn’t find its real speed and precision,
beyond that Peter Tesanovic offered some outstanding saves to keep the young
Montenegrins in play. It stood 4-4 at halftime, then came a better spell from
Barceloneta, at least they could gain a 4-6 lead and shut out their rivals for
8:24 minutes, but captain Marko Petkovic stepped up towards the end of this quarter
and with two magnificent shots he brought back Jadran to 6-7 before the last
break.
Alvaro Granados’ two
fine finishes in back-to-back man-ups and a killed mandown in between gave a
calming 6-9 advantage for the Spaniards early in the fourth, but Herceg Novi
didn’t gave in. However, the Montenegrins could never get inside two goals as
the experienced shooting squad of the Spanish side found the back of the net
when it was really necessary.
Thus the top three
teams already gained a significant advantage over the other three and will
decide the top ranks among each other while the fourth spot will go to Hannover
in case the Germans will be able to organise the Final Eight in June – if not,
a new battle will begin.
Fixtures for Thursday
Group A – Round 7: 15.15 Marseille v Jug, 17.45 Olympiacos v Spandau, 20.15
Recco v Ortigia
Group B – Round 6:
14.00 Brescia v Dinamo, 16.30 Barceloneta v Hannover, 19.00 FTC v Jadran
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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