After eight straight defeats over the
years, including a bad beating in Barcelona a couple of weeks ago, Barceloneta
stunned Recco to claim a huge away win and retake the top spot in Group A.
Olympiacos ‘copy-pasted’ the 14-6 rout from Day 6 against fellow Greek side
Vouliagmeni, while Jadran clinched a crucial away win over Radnicki to push the
Serbs aside in the hunt for the fourth qualifying spot. Dinamo earned their
first victory in the season amidst dramatic circumstances – the Georgians were
8-4 down in Hannover but shut out the hosts in the entire second half to win
8-10 at the end.
Day 9, Group A: NC Vouliagmeni (GRE)
v Olympiacos Piraeus (GRE) 6-14, Waspo 98 Hannover (GER) v Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO)
8-10, Radnicki Kragujevac (SRB) v Jadran Split (CRO) 11-13, Pro Recco (ITA) v
Zodiac CNA Barceloneta (ESP) 8-9
Standings: 1. Barceloneta 24, 2.
Olympiacos 22, 3. Recco 21, 4. Vouliagmeni 13, 5. Jadran 10, 6. Radnicki 9, 7.
Hannover 3, 8. Dinamo 3
In the big game of the night, played
at the wonderful Bocconi Sport Center in Milano, Recco and Barceloneta were
entangled into a brilliant and thrilling encounter, a bit surprisingly in wake
of the title-holders’ smashing 5-11 victory in Barcelona on Day 6. To have a
chance, the Spaniards had to change something in their defence, and they did a
tremendous job – limiting Recco to 1 for 15 in man-ups is a game winning effort
alone. Barceloneta added a couple of brilliant action goals to handle Recco its
first home defeat since the Covid-disrupted season in 2020 when OSC stunned the
Italians.
Olympiacos beat Greek arch-rival
Vouliagmeni with ease – indeed they reproduced the same score as they had had
on Day 6: the favourites won 14-6 again. This time it was all decided by
halftime, thanks to a 1-6 rout in the second quarter.
Since Vouliagmeni lost – as it was
expected –, the outcome of the Radnicki v Jadran fight became even more
crucial. The Croats really stepped up for this game, stormed to 1-5 lead early
on and were still 4-9 up at the beginning of the third. The Serbs tried to
stage a comeback, scored three in a row and had a possession at 7-9, then a
man-up at 8-10 early in the fourth, but missed that and Jadran hit two in 55
seconds to put the game in bed.
In the match between the bottom
ranked sides, Hannover led 8-4 in the second period only to melt down for the
last 17 minutes. Dinamo did some outstanding efforts in defending while the
Germans were mesmerized and were unable to score in the entire second half, and
the Georgians raced to their first win in the season.
The following days will be devoted to
national teams’ action as the World Cup qualifiers are coming up, Champions
League action shall resume in three weeks.
Euro Cup, Semi-finals, 1st leg –
Summary
Thrillers leave all questions open
The semi-finals in the men’s Euro Cup
offered two thrillers and left the decision to the return legs. Panionios, once
leading by three, scored twice in the last 43 seconds to beat Vasas at the end.
The in-house Italian battle of Trieste and Savona ended in a draw, despite the
hosts had to play four minutes in man-down late in the fourth, after a
brutality call, but conceded a single goal only.
Semi-finals, 1st leg: Panionios GSS
(GRE) v A-Hid-VasasPlaket (HUN) 9-8, Trieste Pallanuoto (ITA) v RN Savona (ITA)
9-9.
Second leg: 22 March
Panionios won a crazy match against
Vasas. The Greeks jumped to a 3-0 lead and held on for 5-2 in the first period
which saw five goals in the last 2:47 minutes. The Hungarians made order in the
backyard to let only two goals for the hosts in the middle two periods while
scoring twice in both quarters to climb back to 7-6. Then in the fourth, they
added two man-up goals to take the lead at 7-8. They had a 0-4 run after 7-4
and shut out the Greeks for 11:10 minutes – but not for the last 43 seconds.
Panionios’ Olympic silver medallist ace Alexandros Gounas hit two in the ‘money
time’, the winner, his 4th, in the very last second.
The in-house battle of the Italians
also produced an even game where the lead was changing constantly and neither
side could build a gap of two goals in the first three periods. Savona, which
had beaten Trieste twice by two in the Italian league this season, led 3-4 at
halftime, and maintained that deep into the third before the hosts could score
two inside the last 1:41 minute to turn into the fourth with a 7-6 advantage.
There they could go up by two for the first time but couldn’t enjoy that for
long as soon after their rivals pulled one back, their Japanese player Inaba Yusuke
was ejected for brutality to let Savona play four minutes in man-up. The result
didn’t mirror that – Giacomo Bini could score from man-down for 9-8 and though
Durdic netted his 6th for 9-9, Savona weren’t able to score any more during
this crucial phase. And not even in the game-ending back-to-back man-ups, so
the decision was left to the return leg.
Challenger Cup, Semi-final, 1st leg:
Tenerife Echeyde (ESP) v Apollon Smyrnis (GRE) 11-10
The second semi between Terrassa
(ESP) and Enka Istabul (TUR) is scheduled for Thursday, summary will follow
after that match.
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