Twenty-one years after the last big
victory of Vasas, in the Cupwinners’ Cup, the Hungarian club claimed another
European trophy. They came up with an almost flawless performance, netting 12
out of 15 man-ups tore their rival Savona apart so they earned an eight-goal
win after the tied first leg.
Euro Cup Final, 2nd leg
A Hid-VasasPlaket (HUN) v RN Savona
(ITA) 15-7 – aggregate: 23-15
To heat up the capacity crowd in
Budapest, some archive footage was played on the giant screen before the teams’
intro, featuring Vasas’ last European triumph in the Cupwinners’ Cup in 2002.
An hour later, another trophy was added to the Hungarian club’s rich treasury.
The hosts stormed to a 5-1 lead right
away with an astonishing performance: they were 5/5 in man-ups, four of those
goals were scored from the 2m line, which is a real booster for the scoring
side and can have devastating effect on the defenders. This is something barely
seen even at league matches, so not surprisingly, Savona – sometimes playing
way too aggressively – struggled in front and missed three 6 on 5s, made only
one.
The following period was a bit more
balanced, though at one stage the visitors seemed to be in deep trouble as
Vasas kept on scoring from extras and led 8-2. Then the Magyars ran a bit out
of steam in the last three minutes and Savona could climb back to 8-4, thanks
to their star centre-forward Lorenzo Bruni who netted two, one from the centre,
as the lonely action goal in the first half.
It was a short-living recovery from
the Italians, though, as Vasas returned to its rumbling mood. They scored twice
– again, from man-ups – and reset the six-goal lead in 80 seconds. Then Drasko
Brugljan scored the hosts’ first action goal in the final series while
Branislav Mitrovic denied the Italians in back-to-back man-downs. Towards the
end Vasas had only seven seconds left to finish a man-up, but they used only
three to make it 12-4 – this 4-0 thrashing closed down the contest, even though
there were eight more minutes to play. (Indeed, Vasas just did what they had
done in their home matches in the Euro Cup: in the previous three, they bested
their respective rivals by 5-6 goals, now they did even better.)
The fourth was devoted to permanent
celebrations – for official note: Vasas closed the game with an incredible 12
for 15 in extra –, and the eight-goal difference remained amidst funny
circumstances. The Vasas bench jumped to the pool in joy when it turned out
that the buzzer signed the end of a possession time and 0.9sec remained on the
clock. Because of that, Savona was awarded a penalty, it was buried for 15-7 –
so a bit historically the coach of the Hungarians Slobodan Nikic was tossed
into the water twice. Kind of highlighting how badly this famous club wanted to
lift a European trophy after 21 long years.
This was the first Euro Cup victory
for them, to be added to the two Champions League (Champions Cup) and three
Cupwinners’ Cup victories from the past. Celebrating the 30th anniversary of
the competition (once named LEN Trophy), the Hungarians got one closer to the
Italian clubs – this was the 8th triumph for the Magyars in these series while
Italy still top the ranks with 10.
Quotes
Slobodan Nikic, coach, Vasas
“We played our best in the season in
the most important match of the season. We were aware how important this match
is for our club and for our fans, we prepared really well and we managed to
execute our game-plan almost perfectly. We learned a lot form the first leg
where we played mediocre and still came away with a draw. We though we were the
better side and we wanted to prove that. I’m so happy that we could deliver a
performance like this today.”
Angelo Angelini, coach, Savona
“Vasas were stronger and played a lot
better, right from the beginning. They made their man-ups while we couldn’t use
the spaces in offence, and we were not able to defend well in man-downs either.
Still, for our club it was a fantastic journey, we are really happy that we
reached the final and could play in such a great atmosphere, in front of full
stands. We have seven players who played a European final for the first time,
for them it’s a great experience, they can learn a lot from these matches.”
Challenger Cup Final, 2nd leg
Apollon stun Terrassa, claim
historical trophy
Terrassa could hold on till the
middle of the third period, then a 0-4 run from Apollon proved to be decisive
in this epic game which produced 32 goals. The hosts could never recover from
the shock, so the Greeks could lift the trophy at the end of the first edition
of the LEN Challenger Cup – also a historical first big win for their club.
Challenger Cup Final, 2nd leg
CN Terrassa (ESP) v GS Apollon
Smyrnis (GRE) 14-18 – aggregate: 25-30
Apollon arrived at Spain with a
single-goal lead, but they staged a stunning start and jumped to a 1-4 lead.
The host reacted well, pulled two back still in the first period and kicked off
the second with a quick double to take the lead for the first time in the
match.
That also kicked off a series of
twists and turns as Apollon then managed to score three goals in a row to go
5-7 up, while Spaniards were unable to find the net for long minutes. Then, in
a sudden, they hit twice in 35 seconds, so with 0:03 to go it was 7-7. Still,
the Greeks led at halftime as Nikola Bogdanovic’s distant shot ended up in the
net, just beating the buzzer.
The home side returned to the field
as determined as ever and in 41 seconds they went ahead again for 9-8 with two
action goals. Apollon responded with a double too, but Ricard Alarcon netted an
extra to make it 10-10. Since 4-4, the lead was changing constantly – so what
came in the following couple of minutes, a 0-4 rush by the Greeks, had
devastating consequences on the outcome, at least from a Spanish angle.
Two goals in 38 seconds gave a
two-goal lead for the visitors, while Terrassa were unable to handle the
mounting pressure in front of their capacity crowd. 44 seconds later Emmanouil
Solanakis put away another extra, soon the Greeks killed a man-down and Lazar
Vickovic’s action goal completed the big run for 10-14. In 2:32 minutes, the
game was virtually over – the hosts could never recover from this shock.
Terrassa could pull one back twice
early in the fourth, then had two man-ups at 13-16 to come closer, missed both
and when Vickovic netted his 5th of the game from a 6 on 5 for 13-17, he sealed
the Greeks’ victory. The Spaniards even wasted a 6 on 4, before an exchange of
goals closed down this epic, 32-goal final, to give way to the Greeks’ wild
celebrations.
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