Champions League, Day 6, Group B,
Summary – Euro Cup and Challenger Cup Quarter-finals
No unbeaten side remained in the
field after injury-hit Novi Beograd fell in Budapest where Ferencvaros won a
kind of shooting contest. Since Brescia made no mistake in Berlin, the Italians
took back the top spot in this group. OSC and Jug played a thrilling tie, not
the best result for these two who are chasing the top ranked sides. Sabadell
claimed its first win in the season, at the expense of Marseille which were
dropped to the bottom.
Day 6, Group B: FTC-Telekom Budapest
(HUN) v Novi Beograd (SRB) 14-12, Spandau 04 Berlin (GER) v AN Brescia (ITA)
10-16, Genesys-OSC Budapest (HUN) v Jug Adriatic Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO)
9-9, Astralpool Sabadell (ESP) v CN Marseille (FRA) 13-11
Standings: 1. Brescia 15, 2. Novi
Beograd 13, 3. Ferencvaros 12, 4. Jug 8, 5. OSC 6, 6. Spandau 5, 7. Sabadell 4,
8. Marseille 4
Brescia didn’t let the Spandau
players think of anything similar they had achieved two weeks ago when they had
stunned Ferencvaros. The Italians brought their disciplined, aggressive and
highly effective game to the pool. Though their defence did not work flawlessly
as in the previous rounds – got three goals right away in the first quarter –,
their win was never in danger.
Ferencvaros bounced back from the
Berlin shock and beat Novi Beograd in an entertaining game which sometimes was
more similar to practice day out at a shooting range. The health issues of the
Serbs definitely played to their hands – NBG missed four of their key players –
and the Magyars made most of their chances. This also means that the last
unbeaten side fell in the prelims (after Recco thrashed Barceloneta in the
other group on Tuesday).
And the two winners also got some
‘great’ news on the ‘chasing camp’ as none of their most dangerous rivals could
win. OSC and Jug staged a thrilling battle where the Croats led by three late
in the second period, but the Magyars managed to come back and after shutting
out Jug for 10:45 minutes, took a 9-7 lead in the fourth. Jug woke up in time
and veteran Maro Jokovic saved the game to a draw with a fine action goal 40
seconds before the buzzer.
Marseille sank further – the French
team, which had reached the Final Eight in the previous two seasons, suffered
their fourth defeat in six rounds. Sabadell came up big to win their first game
in the season, in fact they left no chance for their rivals, dominated for four
periods as Sergi Cabanas netted 7 goals.
Men’s Euro Cup, quarter-finals, 1st
leg
Vasas, Panionios and Savona are en
route to the semis
Vasas and Panionios claimed big home
wins while Savona had a great away victory in France. The only tight match was
held in Szolnok where Trieste won a 25-goal thriller.
Quarter-finals, 1st leg: A Hid-Vasas
Plaket (HUN) v VK Sabac (SRB) 10-4, Szolnoki Dozsa (HUN) v Trieste Pallanuoto
(ITA) 12-13, Panionios GSS (GRE) v CSM Oradea (ROU) 10-5, EN Tourcoing (FRA) v
SN Savona (ITA) 5-8. Return leg: 8 February
In the highlighted game, Savona
stormed to a 0-4 lead by halftime while showing some amazing defending.
Tourcoing could score their first after 17:45 minutes but were still trailing
2-6 with eight minutes left. Savona, facing 20 man-downs in total, were getting
tired and the French climbed back to 5-7, but the Italians’ seasoned veteran
Valerio Rizzo put away an extra 10 seconds from time to secure a three-goal win
for his side.
Fellow Italian club Trieste played a
spectacular encounter in Szolnok. The Hungarians were leading by one or two
goals for three periods, but Trieste scored three connecting goals after 11-10
in the fourth and the hosts could pull back only one.
Vasas passed their next Serbian test
with flying colours – after beating Crvena Zvezda by five at home in the
eight-finals, now they downed Sabac by six. The Hungarians stormed to a 6-1
lead, were 7-3 up at halftime, then shut out their rival in the third period
while expanded the gap to six goals. They kept that till the end – though they
need to be on high alert in two-week time as they almost blew their five-goal
advantage in Serbia last December.
Panionios also did some damage in the
third period – they won that quarter 2-0 as well to take a 7-3 lead against
Oradea. The Greeks managed to build a five-goal difference by the end which
might be enough to make the semis.
Men’s Challenger Cup, Quarter-finals,
1st leg
Decisive victories in all four
matches
Though there are still return legs to
play, it’s hard to see that any of the today’s winners won’t make the semis in
the newly launched Challenger Cup. The two Spanish teams were especially
outstanding.
Quarter-finals, 1st leg: SV
Ludwigsburg 08 (GER) v CN Terrassa (ESP) 7-16, Apollon Smyrnis (GRE) v Galatasaray
Istanbul (TUR) 9-5, Enka Istanbul (TUR) v ZPC Het Ravijn (NED) 14-8, Tenerife
Echeyde (ESP) v SKP Kosice (SVK) 22-8. Return leg: 8 February
Terrassa did a clean job in Germany –
Ludwigsburg were 4-7 down at halftime already and their tank was running dry in
the second half where the Spaniards produced a 3-9 run. The other team from
Spain, Tenerife also enjoyed an easy cruising at home against Kosice – a 4-1
opening was followed by an 8-1 thrashing in the second to secure the semi-final
appearance virtually by halftime – at the end they stopped at 22 goals.
Of the two Istanbul-based sides, Enka
stormed to a 3-0 lead early on, held the three-goal gap till the last period
and doubled it by the end against Het Ravijn. Veteran Croatian Olympic champ Paolo
Obradovic led the charge with 6 goals – in view of the final result, 14-8, we
can say he made the difference.
The other Turkish club was soundly
beaten in Greece – Galatasaray fell 4-0 behind early on but came back to 7-5
towards the end of the third in the home of Apollon Smyrnis. However, the hosts
had the last laugh, they scored the only goal in the fourth while the Turks,
after being unable to score in the first 11 minutes, also remained scoreless in
the last eleven too. That led to a four-goal defeat, perhaps a gap too much to
bridge in two weeks.
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