Courtesy: LEN
Olympiacos claimed a brilliant away
win in Novi Belgrade and is already the only side in Group A with two wins after Day 2. Brescia managed to
down Barceloneta in a brilliant battle while
Ferencvaros blew away a four-goal lead in the final minutes against
Radnicki in Kragujevac to settle for its
second draw. Jadran also went through some nerve-wrecking moments lately
at home, despite leading by 7 after
three periods against Dinamo. All in all, the four brilliant matches produced 97 goals – it was water polo
at its best, something the Champions League is
famous for.
Group A
VK Novi Beograd (SRB) v Olympiacos
Piraeus (GRE) 9-12, AN Brescia (ITA) v Zodiac Atletic Barceloneta (ESP) 14-12, VK Radnicki
Kragujevac (SRB) v FTC-Telekom Budapest (HUN) 11-11, Jadran Split (CRO) v Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO)
15-13
Standings: 1. Olympiacos 6, 2.
Brescia 4, 3. Barceloneta 3, 4. Novi Beograd 3, 5. Jadran 3, 6. Ferencvaros 2, 7. Radnicki 1, 8. Dinamo 0
The encounters in this extremely
tough group already offered the expected thrills, all four games had outstanding rallies and great comebacks – at
the end, Olympiacos remained the only team with 2/2. The Greeks produced two outstanding spells in Belgrade,
first they jumped to a 2-6 lead after being 2-1
down, then they overcame the Serbs late surge in the second period and
after 5-6 they produced an even more
devastating run in the third, won this quarter 0-4 and looked to be the
winners. However, the host team climbed
back, their lefties hit four goals in a row and at 9-10 it was an open game
again, but two fine shots from the
Olympiacos offence calmed down the crowd.
Something similar happened in the
other Serbian sides’ pool in Kragujevac. Here three periods brought a balanced match, then Ferencvaros’ could
gain control step by step, took an 7-8 lead before the last break, then in the fourth they added three
more to go 7-11 up with four minutes remaining. Still, it was not enough as they started to play with the
clock, instead of the ball, and the Serbs smelled blood. In the last 1:46 minutes they netted three more
action goals to save the match to a tie – it was the second away draw for the Magyars, which may be considered
a fine achievement but in this extremely balanced group this blown four-goal lead might hit back
on the long run.
In Brescia, it was the visiting
Barceloneta, which almost made a miracle. The Italians had a great surge late in the third period when they managed to
take a 11-8 lead and they expanded it to four early in the fourth and still held on for 13-10 with 4:24
from time. However, the Spaniards pulled two back and had
a man-up in the last minute to
equalise but missed it and soon Brescia secured its first win from a counter.
Jadran passed the compulsory home
test against Dinamo – for three periods they seemed to do it with flying colours as they built a massive 14-7
lead. In the fourth they laid back too soon, lost this period 1- 6 and at 15-13
they had to survive two Georgian possessions before they could cash the three
points.
Recaps
Novi Beograd v Olympiacos 9-12
Though the Serbs got the upper hand
at the beginning as they took a 2-1 lead early on, Olympiacos staged a better spell soon – perhaps it was
even more than that, a tremendous 0-5 rally. Their usual discipline and efficiency brought great goals
from 6 on 5s, penalties after fine centre-actions and counters while they showed some brilliant
defending against some of the games’ greatest attackers. With 3:43 to go in the second, they were 2-6
up, and the Serbs could score their next after only 8:36 minutes. However, this time it was their turn
– indeed their Greek ace Angelos Vlachopoulos also added a precise sneaking shot and at the very end
they could even score after a corner, courtesy of Dusko Pijetlovic, in the remaining 1.3 seconds.
At 5-6, after the great comeback, one
might have thought that the hosts were on the rise but two distant blasts from Konstantinos Genidounias and
Filip Filipovic quickly gave a 5-8 lead for the visitors. Since Genidounias was on fire – he added two more –
and Marko Bijac delivered some outstanding saves, Olympiacos took a commanding lead by the end
of this period, turning off the Serbian offence and silencing the crowd.
Olympiacos was set to win this match
at 5-10 – however, it was not over. The hosts’ young leftie, Nika Shushiashvili managed to beat Bijac twice in
two minutes and even though the Greeks managed to kill a man-up, another left-handed rocket, this time
from Dusan Mandic, brought Novi Beograd back to life at 8-10. Olympiacos missed
a crucial man-up, while Shushiashvili hit his third from their extra and
only one goal separated the two sides
again at 2:40 to go. However, Chrysovalantis Chrysospatis, also enjoying a brilliant evening, managed to put
away the Greeks’ following man-up and after a block in the back, Filip Filipovic brought calm to the
pool by his trademark 6m net-crashing shot, this time causing pain with that to his fellow Serbians on the
stands.
Brescia v Barceloneta 14-12
As usual, the two sides produced another
memorable clash and this time Brescia bettered the Spaniards – unlike in the previous season, at least in
the prelims when Barceloneta won both encounters, only to lose the bronze medal match in the Final 8
badly (7-13).
For two periods, it was the usual
even match, Brescia managed to take the lead several times but the visitors had the answers, never letting the
Italians to go by two. This trend changed dramatically late in the third when the hosts could score three
unanswered goals after 8-8. Djordje Lazic put away an extra, Boris Vapenski hit a great action goal and
Vincenzo Renzuto scored a brilliant one from the centre – the hosts could even afford to miss a penalty a
bit earlier, they still seemed to sit comfortably in the driving seat at 11-8.
Stefano Luongo’s action shot expanded
the gap to four right at the beginning of the fourth and even though the Catalans pulled two back in 54
seconds, Lazic’s late conversion from a dying man-up set back Brescia’s three-goal advantage. Alvaro
Granados buried a 6 on 5 immediately from their next possession and after some swimming and
battling he netted another one from the distance to make it 13- 12 with 2:29
remaining on the clock. And Barceloneta got the chance to equalise, but the
Italian defence worked really well in
this man-down and with six seconds from time Jacopo Alesiani sent the ball
home from a counter to seal Brescia’s
first win.
Radnicki v Ferencvaros 11-11
Just like the other ‘late evening
show’ in Brescia, this battle was also balanced for quite a while. Radnicki was in front for about ten minutes
then last season’s runners-up could score twice thank to Szilard Jansik’s
precise shots from man-ups and they took the lead for the first time. Few have
guessed at this stage that Radnicki would never lead again – though no one
envisioned what was coming a bit later. With a smart lob, Aleksa Ukropina beat
the buzzer to bring his team back to even for the halftime break but in the
third period the Hungarians were a bit more composed at both ends and could
keep their 7-8 lead till the end of the
third period. Especially the second half of this quarter produced an enormous
battle, defences ruled the game, the visitors could kill a double man-down
which definitely boosted their confidence.
Jansik put away another man-up in the
very last moment of the possession, then after another killed extra Denes Varga
showed his class once more by releasing a 10m pinpoint shot which gave his team
a 7-10 lead. With 3:59 to go, it was
7-11 after a converted penalty, and again, nothing promised any sharp change as
the Serbs looked a bit tired and their scoreless phase was narrowing the 10
minute-mark. Then Nikola Lukic broke the
ice after 9:47, with 3:37 on the clock, still, the next possessions were gone
while the Magyars started to play with the time. Then Milos Milicic found the
back of the net from the wing with 1:46
to go and the crowd smelled blood. With 63 seconds remaining, Olympic champ
Milos Cuk came up with a brilliant 6m
blast which beat three blocking arms and the goalie and the miracle came closer. Jansik, netted four in the game,
could have been the hero of the Magyars as he battled himself to a clear shooting position from the
centre but hit the post and at the other end Cuk found sent the ball home once more and the fans to the
seventh heaven, 14 seconds from time. Like in Brescia, leftie Marton Vamos took the last shot after
a time-out, though this time from action, and the block denied him, so Ferencvaros had to settle for
another away tie in two weeks.
Jadran v Dinamo 15-13
The Georgians could hold on for eight
minutes – trailed 3-2 after the first period – then Jadran started dominating. In the second period their
centre-forwards delivered everything their team needed: action goals, exclusions, fine finishes in man-ups
from the 2m line. It was a 7-goal hammering from the hosts, they were especially in the mood in the last
minutes of the second period when they jumped from 7-5 to 10-5. At this stage, Dinamo looked a bit
hopeless in front, the Croatian defence worked really well, they shut out their rivals for 8:34 minutes and
expanded the gap to seven goals at 12-5 and kept that till the last break.
Then they laid back, changed the
goalie, and considered the job done as they still led 15-8 with 5:47 remaining. But soon Dusan Vasic and his mates
found the back of the net from three back-to-back possessions and Jadran’s lead started to
diminish – after a while a bit faster as the clock was ticking down. With 2:16 to go it was 15-13, Dinamo
netted six within this last period and it looked to be an open battle as the Croats lost their
composure in offence too. However, the last two shots from the Georgians were saved by the post and the
goalie, so the favourites avoided a bigger embarrassment.
Fixtures, Wednesday – Group B
19.00 Jug Adriatic Osiguranje
Dubrovnik (CRO) v CN Marseille (FRA)
19.00 Spandau 04 Berlin (GER) v Waspo
98 Hannover (GER)
20.15 Crvena Zvezda (SRB) v OSC
Budapest (HUN)
21.00 Pro Recco (ITA) v Steaua
Bucharest (ROU)
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