Courtesy: LEN
The first winner of the European club
season is to be declared this Saturday in Sabadell where the return leg of the
Euro Cup final takes place. It’s going to be a historical first at the European
stage for the victor, either the Spaniards or Italy’s Palermo come out on top
in the end. Palermo won the first leg 9-7.
Sabadell needs to dig deep to
overturn the two-goal deficit, but the hosts got used to playing nailbiters
this season as they edged out Savona in the quarters after a thrilling 34-shot
penalty shootout and survived a couple of scares against fellow Spanish side CN
Barcelona in the semis.
It’s yet to be seen if their
disastrous mistake committed in the last second of the first leg hits back:
they were trailing by a single goal, killed Palermo’s last man-up but their
excluded player returned to the field despite getting his third personal foul
and the ensuing penalty doubled the Italians’ advantage.
The Sabadell pool witnessed a couple
of great triumphs, thanks to the women’s team which won the Euro League five
times – the men’s side is yet to claim a European trophy, they reached the
final ten years ago but were denied by Savona, an Italian side.
Beforehand, Palermo has never been
around when European silverware was at stake – now they have a great chance to
add a golden chapter to the club’s history book. It would also boost Italy’s
outstanding tally in this competition – since 1993 (back then called LEN
Trophy) its clubs were absolutely dominant, lifted the trophy 10 times and had
10 more occasions when an Italian side finished runner-up. On contrary, Spain
had only three appearances, with two victories and one lost final (by
Sabadell).
Euro Cup, Final, 2nd leg – Saturday
12.30 Astralpool Sabadell (ESP) v Telimar Palermo (ITA) – first leg: 7-9
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