Women’s Euro League Water Polo, Final Four, Piraeus (GRE) – Day 2, Olympiacos retains the trophy with a superior performance

 

Host side Olympiacos retained the Euro League trophy and became the seventh club in the competition’s history to win back-to-back titles. The Greeks outplayed 5-time champion Sabadell in the final, jumped to a three-goal lead early on and maintained that gap till the end. This also completed a Greek double – four days after fellow Piraeus side Ethnikos won the LEN Trophy, Olympiacos claimed the Euro League victory, it’s the ninth time since 2000 that the winning clubs represent the same nation. Padova snatched the bronze with a magnificent 6-1 rush in the last period to achieve the best-ever result in the club’s history.

Final:

Olympiacos Piraeus (GRE) v Astralpool Sabadell (ESP) 11-7.

Bronze medal match: UVSEHunguest Hotels (HUN) v Plebiscito Padova (ITA) 6-11

Back in 2010, Ethnikos’ LEN Trophy-win was a sign that something special was in sight – back then Vouliagmeni won the Euro League, so Greece became the first nation after Italy to clinch this special double (Italians did it five times before that). This Wednesday Ethnikos lifted the LEN Trophy once more – and this weekend it was Olympiacos’ turn, and the Greek champion delivered in style, both in the semis and in the final. Note, that former Serbian great, world champion and three-time Olympic medallist Aleksandar Ciric led Olympiacos to this triumph right in his first season in charge at a women team (he came from the bench of Iran’s men national team, to take over the position of Charis Pavlidis who coaches team China now).

On Sunday, the title-holders offered another commanding performance, they stormed to a 3-0 lead early on and never looked back. Sabadell tried to dig deep but they were unable to cut the deficit to a single goal, whenever they came back to two, the Greeks replied almost immediately. The heat could have been turned on at 6-4, but Sabadell missed a crucial man-up and conceded a goal right from the next possession of Olympiacos – that was the virtual end of the contest.

This game offered another proof for the old saying that offences win games but the defences win titles – the number of saves stood 14-5 at the end, and the Greeks had 10 blocks, compared to Sabadell’s 2. That inevitably made a crucial difference in man-up plays: 4 for 7 versus 4 for 14.

It brought the third win for Olympiacos, the second in a row, much to the joy of the home crowd – the local fans created a fantastic atmosphere, so it was not surprising that the Greeks returned to the tradition that the home side kept the trophy in the house. Between 2015 and 2019 it happened at all five editions, and after the Greeks left Budapest triumphantly last May, today they did it again at home, like they had done in 2015, when they had also beaten Sabadell.

Padova blew away UVSE in the fourth period for the bronze medal. The Hungarians had a great run to lead 4-2 (back from 0-2), but a meltdown after 5-3 cost them the match. They wasted a series of manups while the Italians’ brilliant shots from the perimeter did the damage. Indeed, Padova came up with a 0-5 last period against Sabadell, this time they produced a 1-6 run – a day ago it came after 3-9, now after 5-5 so it was more than enough to achieve the club’s best-ever result, the third place in the Euro League.

Laura Barzon was instrumental in Padova’s triumph as she scored the last four goals, all from action, including a real masterpiece. On contrary, UVSE had 10 less shots on target (12-22), and that had to lead to another defeat, so they finished 4th for the third time in the F4s – in their five appearances they played 10 games but won only two.

 

Recaps

Olympiacos v Sabadell 11-7 – The Greeks stormed to a 3-0 lead in the opening period, a great blast from Vasiliki Plevritou kicked off their attacks. After a killed man-down they managed to put the ball away from a second extra within the same possession and 83 seconds later the other Plevritou sibling, Eleftheria also let the ball fly from the distance for 3-0. It could have been 4-0 but Vasiliki hit the advertising boards from a penalty and US superstar Maggie Steffens finally broke the ice on the other end from a man-up, with 56 seconds before the first break. Still, Kyra Christmas’ great left-handed shot ended up in the net 22 seconds later for 4-1, so the home side closed a very promising first eight minutes.

The Spaniards’ struggles in offence continued in the second, their first two possessions were denied by blocks, the second in a 6 on 5, then Chrysoula Diamantopoulou added two more saves so almost four minutes gone and the 5-time champion stood with a single goal. Alexandar Ciric called for a time-out to refresh Olympiacos’ attacking line and that immediately paid off as the rested centre-forward Maria Myriokefalitaki scored a great action goal for 5-1. This was a wake-up call for the rival too and Catharina van der Sloot came up with the first really well-placed shot for 5-2. However, a steal stopped the next one – though it was played after a time-out –, and even though the Greeks’ offence also weakened a bit (their extra also gone without a shot), the hosts still led by three at halftime.

A 7th block from Olympiacos denied Sabadell’s first 6 on 5 but Brigitta Games could convert the next one from the 2m line – however, the Greeks’ response arrived immediately as Myriokefalitaki also buried an extra from close range. The Spaniards found another hole in the wall in a third man-up this period, Nona Perez’s bouncing shot went in, but the fourth was killed again (could have been 6-5) and Margarita Plevritou’s fantastic no-look shot from a dying man-up reset the three-goal gap. Judith Forca pulled one back once more with a great left-hander from action – she had five unsuccessful attempts before – but Nikoleta Eleftheriadou buried a penalty, earned in a counter, for 8-5 with 1:01 to go till the last break.

However hard Sabadell worked in this period, the home side kept the distance and only eight minutes remained – and unlike in 2019, when the Spanish produced a miraculous comeback in a similar situation (trailed 8-11 with five minutes to go but staged a 5-0 run in the remaining time), this time Olympiacos was backed by some 1,000 enthusiastic fans who created a magical atmosphere.

After another denied man-up, Maggie Steffens scored a fine action goal from close but again, they couldn’t cut the deficit further from their next attack and Eleftheria Plevritou’s great action shot gave a 9-6 lead to the title-holders. Monika Eggens’ lob was first called a goal, but the VAR erased it from the scorebook and when the other Plevritou’s shot from a 6 on 5 got behind the goalie’s back with some luck, it was 10-6 and even though 5:00 minutes left on the clock, Sabadell faced a mission impossible.

And since the Greek goalies were superior – Diamanthopolou had 7 saves in the first half, substitute Ioanna Stamatopoulou joined in with 7 more in the second half, two came in man-downs in the last three minutes – Sabadell had no chance. One more goal at both ends did not really change the outcome.

 

UVSE v Padova 6-11 –  Padova staged a kick-start to lead 0-2 in the middle of the first period, but the Hungarians managed to equalise within the quarter and then step-by-step they gained control. Their defence worked well, Alda Magyari came up with a couple of fine saves while an extraman and a penalty goal gave UVSE a 4-2 lead. Padova missed all its man-ups and had a scoreless period of 10:51 minutes before Elle Armit hit one from action.

Trends didn’t change for a while in the third, though – Natasa Rybanska’s blast from extra reset the two-goal gap but Maria Borisova replied from the centre immediately for 5-4. The remaining minutes brought more brilliance from the goalies, Magyari stopped a penalty, Laura Teani denied the UVSE shooters in consecutive man-downs. A block helped her in a 6 on 4 in the dying seconds and that was crucial as Elisa Queirolo’s pin-point shot bounced in from the crossbar at the other end, so it stood 5-5 instead of 6-4 before the final quarter.

And Padova carried on its momentum in the fourth, an easy put-away from a man-up by Martina Gottardo sent them ahead for the first time since the first period and soon two magnificent bouncing shots from the outside, by Borisova and Laura Barzon turned the match upside down. Soon Barzon scored one more from action, Padova was on fire, indeed they scored five goals from their last six possessions – and even though there was 5:02 minutes to play, UVSE was done at 5-9.

The Magyars’ meltdown was spectacular, it lasted 9:14 minutes and saw a 0-6 crush – even though they finally scored after they opted to risk the 7 on 6 play (the goalie joined the attackers), then killed a mandown but they were unable to take a shot in the following possession and Barzon sent the ball to the empty net from her own half. Soon she crowned here brilliant performance with a fourth straight goal, it was a masterpiece, a classic tipping from the surface and it sealed Padova’s best-ever result at the European stage.

 

Quotes

Aleksandar Ciric, coach, Olympiacos “This a great win and I cannot be grateful enough for my players, for the club and I also have to mention a man who is in China now, coach Pavlidis, whose work is still in this team, he also deserves credits for this win. I think we played with the necessary focus and tension in this match, the players were very disciplined and that brought this fantastic result.”

David Palma, coach, Sabadell “Congratulations to Olympiacos they fully deserved this victory. They were stronger, more powerful both in offence and defence. We were unable to deliver in man-ups, but that was partly because Olympiacos defended really well.”

Stefano Posterivo, coach, Padova “It looks like we are very strong in the last period… Well, I wouldn’t say we played badly in up until then, we just had a couple of problems in attack, but we managed to change our gameplan for the second half while we did very well in defending. This is a huge result for our club, this is a historical result, our best performance so far, so I’m very proud of my team.”

Marton Benczur, UVSE, coach “I’m open to take calls to hear a fine explanation what happened to my team as I can’t really find the answers. It was a game in our hand, in the third period we should have built a 6-goal lead, but we were unable to take a normal shot. A couple of those was rather back-passes to the rival’s goalie, and until we make attempts like this, it’s useless to talk about saves, goalkeeper’s performance, what’s more, we cannot dream of winning titles, not in Europe, but at home either.”