None of the teams playing at home
could claim a point – and the four winning sides, Brescia, Novi Beograd,
Ferencvaros and Jug now enjoy a bigger advantage at the halfway mark in the
prelims.
Day 7, Group B: CN Marseille (FRA) v
AN Brescia (ITA) 5-13, Genesys OSC Budapest (HUN) v FTC-Telekom Budapest (HUN)
12-16, Astralpool Sabadell (ESP) v VK Novi Beograd (SRB) 6-8, Spandau 04 Berlin
(GER) v Jug Adriatic Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO) 11-12
Standings: 1. Brescia 18, 2. Novi
Beograd 16, 3. Ferencvaros 15, 4. Jug 11, 5. OSC 6, 6. Spandau 5, 7. Sabadell
4, 8. Marseille 4
The top four sides all claimed
important away wins and now they are riding the waves which can bring them all
the way to Belgrade. Though while Brescia and Ferencvaros won with ease, Novi
Beograd had to dig deep to beat Sabadell and Jug bagged three points amidst
dramatic circumstances.
Group leader Brescia demolished
Marseille in two periods – the French missed all the chances in the world, a
penalty, a 6 on 3 (!) and many key man-ups while the Italians offered a
flawless performance, led 1-7 deep into the second period and never looked
back.
The all-Hungarian clash lacked the
excitements the two sides had produced in their previous two clashes in the
domestic competitions. On those two occasions FTC edged out OSC by a single
goal, now, in their arch-rival pool, they blew them away by halftime when they
led 3-10, thanks to a 7-goal storm in the second period. It looked bad for the
home side at 5-14 in the fourth, then OSC had a better spell and also finished
the last period with a 7-hoal haul.
Novi Beograd had all their foreign
aces back on board and they were instrumental in the Serbs’ win in Sabadell.
The Spanish side fought hard, scored three connecting goals after 1-3 to lead
4-3 at halftime. Still, NBG’s returning greats, the two Greeks, Vlachopoulos
and Skoumpakis and, much to the hosts’ regret, Spaniard Alvaro Granados were
all part the Serbs’ big comeback. A 1-4 run in the third proved to be decisive
– so the F8 hosts found their way back to the winning path.
Spandau rushed to a 3-0 lead against
Jug and even though the Croats managed to get back on track and took the lead
at 6-7, the Germans netted two before the last break and went 8-7 up. What’s
more, they led 9-7 early in the fourth, however, the favourites levelled the
score again and again. Then, at 10-10, with 2:40 to go, Mateo Cuk’s hit of his
defender was called brutality by the refs, the penalty and the 4min expulsion
put Jug in a winning position and the Croats prevailed at the end, though still
had to survive some scary moments.
Euro Cup Quarter-finals, 2nd leg
Oradea were close to that miracle
Savona, Trieste and Vasas all advanced
to the semi-finals with double wins – but Panionios almost blew a five-goal
advantage from the first leg, they edged out Oradea in a thrilling penalty
shootout after the Romanians produced a miraculous comeback.
Euro Cup, Quarter-finals, 2nd leg
CSM Oradea (ROU) v Panionios GSS
(GRE) 13-8, pen: 6-7 – aggregate: 24-25
RN Savona (ITA) v EN Tourcoing (FRA)
13-10 – aggregate: 21-15
VK Sabac (SRB) v A Hid-Vasas-Plaket
(HUN) 6-9 – aggregate: 10-19
Trieste Pallanuoto (ITA) v Szolnoki
Dozsa (HUN) 11-10 – aggregate: 24-22
In our preview we asked: Miracle?
Anyone? Well, Oradea were going for it and almost created one. The Romanians
jumped to a 4-1 lead against Panionios, but the Greeks, arriving with a
five-goal advantage, fought themselves back to 7-5 by halftime. In the third
the Romanians gave it all and managed to expand the gap back to three goals,
leaving only two steps to take in the fourth. After a quick exchange of goals,
the hosts managed to score twice in 45 seconds and with 4:30 to go they seemed
to have it at 13-8. Soon they had a man-up but missed that crucial chance,
though denied the Greeks’ 6 on 5 as well so the penalties decided the outcome.
The first six rounds didn’t see any miss, but Flavius Ilisie hit the post in
the seventh and that gave the win to the Greeks.
Just like two weeks ago, Trieste and
Szolnok produced a thrilling encounter. The lead was exchanging constantly –
though the Italians led 7-5 at halftime, Szolnok scored three in a row and
early in the fourth the Magyars were still 8-9 ahead. However, the hosts staged
a great 3-0 run, shut out their rivals for five minutes and Szolnok could pull
only one back lately and lost this one by a single goal as well.
There were no doubts which were the
better sides in the other two duels. Vasas did not commit the same mistake they
had done in the eight-finals when they were almost ousted after a five-goal
home win in Belgrade. Now, back to Serbia, they took control early on and never
let Sabac in the game and added a three-goal victory to their six-goal
thrashing in the first leg.
Savona won by three against
Tourcoing, just like in January. The French led 2-3 early in the second quarter
but the Italians responded with a 3-0 run and kept the 2-3 goal gap till the
end of the match.
The draw for the semi-finals will be
conducted on Thursday, 9 February from 11.00CET.
LEN Challenger Cup, Quarter-finals,
2nd leg
Two Spanish and Enka Istanbul are all
through
No hiccups in the three return
matches played on Wednesday: both Terrassa and Tenerife advanced with ease, and
Enka Istanbul also reached the semis without excitements, though here Het
Ravijn got some consolation at least.
Quarter-finals, 2nd leg
ZPC Het Ravijn (NED) v Enka Istanbul
(TUR) 16-15 – aggregate 24-29
CN Terrassa (ESP) v SV Ludwigsburg 08
(GER) 15-12 – aggregate: 31-19
SKP Modri Draci (SVK) v Tenerife
Echeyde (ESP) 8-13 – first leg: 16-35
Postponed to 18 February
Galatasaray Istanbul (TUR) v Apollon
Smyrnis (GRE) – first leg: 5-9
Enka Istanbul arrived at the
Netherlands with a six-goal advantage – still, Het Ravijn managed to halve that
lead in aggregate twice, at 6-3 then later at 11-8. However, the Turks could
reply with two connecting goals on both occasions to freeze the atmosphere
before it was getting too hot. It was a no-load-just-shoot game producing 31
goals at the end – in fact, Enka’s advancing was never in danger.
The other two games, featuring the
favourite Spanish sides, lacked the excitements as the first leg had already
decided everything. Ludwigsburg still fought hard in Terrassa and this time
they lost by three goals (had been beaten by nine at home), while the ‘Dragons’
of Kosice could cut back the number of conceded goals to 13 from 22 against
Tenerife – still, both Spanish teams netted 30+ goals in the two games.
The fourth encounter between
Galatasaray Istanbul and Apollon was postponed due to the devastating
earthquakes hitting Turkiye in recent days.
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