CN Marseille made history: by beating Spandau the French side reached the Final Eight for the first time, what’s more, it can even finish third in Group A. Jug secured its second place here, while Recco demolished Olympiacos with a 5-0 blast in the third period. In Budapest, Barceloneta won a thriller against Brescia – the Spaniards came back from 4-8 to win 10-9 and that put them in pole position. Dinamo Tbilisi set up a do-or-die match with Hannover for the last remaining qualifying berth as the Georgians managed to down Jadran. Title-holder Ferencvaros needed a 4-0 rush in the last period to beat Hannover after 9-9 as returning superstar Denes Varga offered another brilliant show, netting 6 goals in total.
QUOTES HERE
Group A (Ostia), Round 9:
CC Ortigia (ITA) v Jug Adriatic
Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO) 9-11
CN Marseille (FRA) v Spandau 04
Berlin (GER) 8-5
Pro Recco (ITA) v Olympiacos Piraeus
(GRE) 13-6
Standings: 1. Recco 27, 2. Jug 19, 3.
Marseille 13, 4. Olympiacos 11, 5. Spandau 5, 6. Ortigia 3
Group B (Budapest), Round 8:
FTC-Telekom Budapest (HUN) v Waspo 98
Hannover (GER) 13-9
Jadran Herceg Novi (MNE) v Dinamo
Tbilisi (GEO) 10- 13
Zodiac Atletic Barceloneta (ESP) v AN
Brescia (ITA) 10-9
Standings: 1. Barceloneta 21, 2.
Brescia 18, 3. Ferencvaros 18, 4. Hannover 6, 5. Dinamo 6, 6. Jadran 3
CN Marseille made history by reaching
the Final Eight with a spirited performance against Spandau – it’s a first both
for the club and for French water polo. The decisive match was a nerve-wrecking
battle with tremendous efforts in defence and tense shot-making in front –
mirrored by the halftime score as Marseille led 3-2. Spandau’s problems started
in the third: though they equalised right from their first possessions, from
that point they were unable to get the ball behind Marseille’s Montenegrin
goalie Dejan Lazovic. The French defence worked extremely well and two action
goals in front put them 5-3 ahead, what’s more, after the Germans missed two
man-ups, they could put away one just 2 seconds before the buzzer for 6-3. And
Spandau’s misery went on in the fourth, Andrija Prlainovic buried a penalty and
when Ante Vukicevic’s pinpoint shot hit the top left corner for 8-3 with 4:42
remaining, the outcome was inevitable. Time-outs didn’t help the Germans
either, who could finally break the ice after 13:12 minutes, but that was way
too late – their poor offense (5 goals from 28 shots – Marseille was 8/23)
prevented them from making the finals again after 2018.
Before this clash, Jug managed to
secure its second place in the group though the 2016 champions had to dig deep
as Ortigia didn’t give that win for free. Though the Italian side bowed out a
day earlier, its players fought pretty hard and even though they were 6-9 down,
they battled themselves back to 9-10 at the beginning of the fourth. Soon they
had a man-up but missed it and Hrvoje Benic’s third goal in the afternoon
secured Jug’s win – though the Croats netted only two goals in the second half
after producing nine in the first.
Based on the past, an exciting match
was to close the Tuesday session in Ostia – instead Recco blew Olympiacos away
in the second half. The Greeks could keep up only for ten minutes or so, after
2-2 Recco netted three unanswered goals and kept the gap till halftime when
they led 7-4. Then in the third it was Recco all the way, a 5-0 run decided the
outcome, the last three came in a span of 2:01 minutes towards the end of the
quarter. The last period lacked the tensions water polo fans had got used to in
these two teams’ clashes in the last two F8s (final in 2018, semi-final in
2019), and now Olympiacos needs to beat Marseille in the last round otherwise
they would finish fourth.
In Group B, the evening showdown
between Barceloneta and Brescia was another important chapter in deciding the
top spot. Brescia, finishing the previous tournament with four wins, offered a
brilliant display of water polo at both ends of the pool in the first half. The
Italians began the match with a 0-3 run and even though Barceloneta came back
to 3-4, Brescia enjoyed another brilliant spell in the second to build a 3-7
lead with well-played manups. Another fine 6 on 5 early in the fourth put them
4-8 up and at that point no one really expected anything similar what actually
happened soon.
Barceloneta changed gears and when
they could hit two from action in a span of 52 seconds, it made them believing
once again. Though Angelos Vlachopoulos netted a dying man-up for 6-9 but not
even this harmed the Spaniards’ rise. Alvaro Granados converted a penalty, then
they killed a mandown and soon Martin Famera brought them even closer with a 6m
shot. One more 6 on 5 gone for Brescia, while Blai Mallarach put one away at
the other end, 37 seconds before the last break – and it was even at 9-9.
The Italians’ offensive struggle continued
in the final quarter – they wasted one more man-up and from the ensuing counter
Barceloneta earned another penalty and Granados sent the ball home again. They
were in the lead for the very first time in the match, with 3:49 to go – that
goal turned out to be the game-winner as Dani Lopez denied Maro Jokovic in
another 6 on 5, and the nets were never touched again in the remaining time.
Indeed, Brescia was shut out in the last 12:04 minutes, but it’s even more
telling that they could score a single goal in the last 14:26 minutes; that
time they were still 4-8 ahead…
This outcome gives Barceloneta the
chance to finish atop – they would only need a point against Ferencvaros on
Wednesday. In case Ferencvaros wins, it’s going to be a three-way tie among the
top three sides and the goaldifference from the games played against each other
might favour Brescia for the top spot.
As of the fourth qualifying spot,
Dinamo’s experienced Serbian and Montenegrin players helped the Georgian
champions to beat the youngsters of Jadran Herceg Novi for the second time in
Budapest. For a while it was an even game, Jadran had the better start but
missed a couple of fine chances, including a penalty but it was still 4-4 in
the middle of the second period. The Montenegrins’ problems began after this
point: after conceding an action goal, they missed a 6 on 4 and 58 seconds
before the break a centre-goal from Andria Bitadze gave Dinamo a 4-6 lead.
Things turned from bad to worse in
the third, soon the Georgians boosted their lead to 9-4 – had a 5-0 rush –
while Jadran kept on missing its 6 on 5s. The Montenegrins could score at last
after a silence of 11:18 minutes, but despite they could find the back of the
net twice in the last 45 seconds in the third, it was too late and too few.
Though Dinamo’s defence loosened up a bit in the fourth, their win was never in
danger – and that set them up for an ‘allin’ match against Hannover. The winner
will go to Belgrade, a tie would favour the Germans.
Despite playing with the complete
roster for the first time in the season, titleholder Ferencvaros offered a bit
of sleepy performance. Hannover took the lead three times in the first period
before the hosts could find the way to make order in defence and go 4-3 up 12
seconds before the first break. In the second they added two while keeping
Hannover at bay for 9:49 minutes and for a while they seemed to have the
control while expanding the gap to three goals. However, another drop in the
level of the Hungarians’ concentration let the Germans back to the game and
some lazy defending in the last seconds ended in another goal from Hannover so
it stood 9-8 before the last break.
Soon it was 9-9 after Ivan Nagaev
converted a man-up so an upset was in the air – but before it could really take
shape, two of the Magyars’ deadliest weapons killed Hannover’s momentum. Two
goals apiece from Denes Varga and Marton Vamos quickly settled the match while
the Germans were unable to score any more in the last 6:22 minutes. Varga could
have netted even more as he missed some fine chances, still, he showed his
unique skills by netting 6 goals – as if he hadn’t missed one and half months
due to Covid-19.
Fixtures for Wednesday
Round 10
15.15 Ortigia v Spandau
17.45 Olympiacos v Marseille
20.15 Jug v Recco
Round 9
14.00 Dinamo v Waspo
16.30 Brescia v Jadran
19.00 Barceloneta v FTC-Telekom
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