The favourite Hungarian teams reached the final with ease: both OSC and Szolnok ticked the semi-finals by winning both home and away, setting up an all-Magyar final for the second time after 1997.
Semi-finals, 2nd leg: Vouliagmeni (GRE)
v OSC Budapest (HUN) 9-11, aggregate: 16-21. Szolnoki Dozsa (HUN) v Crvena
Zvezda (SRB) 15-8, agg: 35-20
Final to be played on 24 April and 8
May.
Since Szolnok demolished Zvezda a
week ago in Belgrade, only Vouliagmeni could have prevented an in-house final between
the Hungarian clubs. The Greeks had posted a couple of outstanding results in
the previous rounds as they had ousted Novi Beograd (SRB) and Mladost Zagreb
(CRO) – but they ran out of miracles against OSC.
The Greeks faced an uphill battle as
they lost by three goals in Budapest – by far the toughest challenge for them
as they had a tie in the eight-finals and trailed by one in the quarters before
playing the return legs at home. To have at least a tiny chance for another
upset, Vouliagmeni should have went two goals ahead at one stage but they could
never lead by two in the entire match.
The tense opening period saw three
goals apiece and a double red card in the last minute in order to calm the
nerves down in the pool. The Magyars staged a fine second period where they
shut out the Greeks for 7:09 minutes, while taking the lead at 4-5. Andrija
Basic levelled the score 4 seconds before the middle break but the home side
couldn’t get any closer by halftime.
Another key moment came early in the
third as Vouliagmeni netted an action goal but OSC replied with two in 32
seconds for 6-7 and from that point the Hungarians never let the hosts lead
again. In fact, they managed to turn into the last period being 8-9 up – was
ahead by four in aggregate – and even though Vouliagmeni equalised from its
first possession, they were unable to score any more in the remaining 6:48 minutes.
At the other end OSC added two more to secure its first European final since
1979 when their great side won a second European Champions Cup (now Champions
League).
The other semi lacked the same
tensions as the first leg already decided the finalist. Szolnok won 20-12 in
Belgrade so a comfortable cruising awaited them this evening. The 2017
Champions League winners opened the return match with a 4-0 rush to set the
tone and continued the contest in a ‘safety-first, avoid-injuries’ mood. Still,
they pushed enough to gain another fine win to advance to the final.
The trophy shall bear a new name as
neither side could won this competition earlier – now the cup returns to
Hungary after Ferencvaros won back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018 (France’s
Marseille won it for the last time in 2019). Also, this will be the second time
that two Hungarians meet for the cup, back in 1997 Ujpest and Ferencvaros had a
showdown with Ujpest prevailing at the end.
Detailed results, stats,
play-by-play:
http://len.microplustiming.com/leneurocup/indexCL_web.php?cal=1
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