Champions League, Prelims, Summary Day 1

Four epic matches produce 97 goals

Olympiacos claimed a brilliant away win in Novi Belgrade and is already the only side in Group A with two wins after Day 2. Brescia managed to down Barceloneta in a brilliant battle while Ferencvaros blew away a four-goal lead in the final minutes against Radnicki in Kragujevac to settle for its second draw. Jadran also went through some nerve-wrecking moments lately at home, despite leading by 7 after three periods against Dinamo. All in all, the four brilliant matches produced 97 goals – it was water polo at its best, something the Champions League is famous for.

Go to the Official Website by clicking the image

Group A

VK Novi Beograd (SRB) v Olympiacos Piraeus (GRE) 9-12, AN Brescia (ITA) v Zodiac Atletic Barceloneta (ESP) 14-12, VK Radnicki Kragujevac (SRB) v FTC-Telekom Budapest (HUN) 11-11, Jadran Split (CRO) v Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) 15-13

Standings: 1. Olympiacos 6, 2. Brescia 4, 3. Barceloneta 3, 4. Novi Beograd 3, 5. Jadran 3, 6. Ferencvaros 2, 7. Radnicki 1, 8. Dinamo 0

The encounters in this extremely tough group already offered the expected thrills, all four games had outstanding rallies and great comebacks – at the end, Olympiacos remained the only team with 2/2. The Greeks produced two outstanding spells in Belgrade, first they jumped to a 2-6 lead after being 2-1 down, then they overcame the Serbs late surge in the second period and after 5-6 they produced an even more devastating run in the third, won this quarter 0-4 and looked to be the winners. However, the host team climbed back, their lefties hit four goals in a row and at 9-10 it was an open game again, but two fine shots from the Olympiacos offence calmed down the crowd.

Something similar happened in the other Serbian sides’ pool in Kragujevac. Here three periods brought a balanced match, then Ferencvaros’ could gain control step by step, took an 7-8 lead before the last break, then in the fourth they added three more to go 7-11 up with four minutes remaining. Still, it was not enough as they started to play with the clock, instead of the ball, and the Serbs smelled blood. In the last 1:46 minutes they netted three more action goals to save the match to a tie – it was the second away draw for the Magyars, which may be considered a fine achievement but in this extremely balanced group this blown four-goal lead might hit back on the long run.

In Brescia, it was the visiting Barceloneta, which almost made a miracle. The Italians had a great surge late in the third period when they managed to take a 11-8 lead and they expanded it to four early in the fourth and still held on for 13-10 with 4:24 from time. However, the Spaniards pulled two back and had a man-up in the last minute to equalise but missed it and soon Brescia secured its first win from a counter.

Jadran passed the compulsory home test against Dinamo – for three periods they seemed to do it with flying colours as they built a massive 14-7 lead. In the fourth they laid back too soon, lost this period 1- 6 and at 15-13 they had to survive two Georgian possessions before they could cash the three points.

Recaps

Novi Beograd v Olympiacos 9-12 – Though the Serbs got the upper hand at the beginning as they took a 2-1 lead early on, Olympiacos staged a better spell soon – perhaps it was even more than that, a tremendous 0-5 rally. Their usual discipline and efficiency brought great goals from 6 on 5s, penalties after fine centre-actions and counters while they showed some brilliant defending against some of the games’ greatest attackers. With 3:43 to go in the second, they were 2-6 up, and the Serbs could score their next after only 8:36 minutes.

However, this time it was their turn – indeed their Greek ace Angelos Vlachopoulos also added a precise sneaking shot and at the very end they could even score after a corner, courtesy of Dusko Pijetlovic, in the remaining 1.3 seconds. At 5-6, after the great comeback, one might have thought that the hosts were on the rise but two distant blasts from Konstantinos Genidounias and Filip Filipovic quickly gave a 5-8 lead for the visitors. Since Genidounias was on fire – he added two more – and Marko Bijac delivered some outstanding saves, Olympiacos took a commanding lead by the end of this period, turning off the Serbian offence and silencing the crowd.

Olympiacos was set to win this match at 5-10 – however, it was not over. The hosts’ young leftie, Nika Shushiashvili managed to beat Bijac twice in two minutes and even though the Greeks managed to kill a man-up, another left-handed rocket, this time from Dusan Mandic, brought Novi Beograd back to life at 8-10. Olympiacos missed a crucial man-up, while Shushiashvili hit his third from their extra and only one goal separated the two sides again at 2:40 to go. However, Chrysovalantis Chrysospatis, also enjoying a brilliant evening, managed to put away the Greeks’ following man-up and after a block in the back, Filip Filipovic brought calm to the pool by his trademark 6m net-crashing shot, this time causing pain with that to his fellow Serbians on the stands.

Brescia v Barceloneta 14-12 – As usual, the two sides produced another memorable clash and this time Brescia bettered the Spaniards – unlike in the previous season, at least in the prelims when Barceloneta won both encounters, only to lose the bronze medal match in the Final 8 badly (7-13). For two periods, it was the usual even match, Brescia managed to take the lead several times but the visitors had the answers, never letting the Italians to go by two. This trend changed dramatically late in the third when the hosts could score three unanswered goals after 8-8.

Djordje Lazic put away an extra, Boris Vapenski hit a great action goal and Vincenzo Renzuto scored a brilliant one from the centre – the hosts could even afford to miss a penalty a bit earlier, they still seemed to sit comfortably in the driving seat at 11-8. Stefano Luongo’s action shot expanded the gap to four right at the beginning of the fourth and even though the Catalans pulled two back in 54 seconds, Lazic’s late conversion from a dying man-up set back Brescia’s three-goal advantage.

Alvaro Granados buried a 6 on 5 immediately from their next possession and after some swimming and battling he netted another one from the distance to make it 13- 12 with 2:29 remaining on the clock. And Barceloneta got the chance to equalise, but the Italian defence worked really well in this man-down and with six seconds from time Jacopo Alesiani sent the ball home from a counter to seal Brescia’s first win.

Radnicki v Ferencvaros 11-11 – Just like the other ‘late evening show’ in Brescia, this battle was also balanced for quite a while. Radnicki was in front for about ten minutes then last season’s runners-up could score twice thank to Szilard Jansik’s precise shots from man-ups and they took the lead for the first time. Few have guessed at this stage that Radnicki would never lead again – though no one envisioned what was coming a bit later. With a smart lob, Aleksa Ukropina beat the buzzer to bring his team back to even for the halftime break but in the third period the Hungarians were a bit more composed at both ends and could keep their 7-8 lead till the end of the third period. Especially the second half of this quarter produced an enormous battle, defences ruled the game, the visitors could kill a double man-down which definitely boosted their confidence.

Jansik put away another man-up in the very last moment of the possession, then after another killed extra Denes Varga showed his class once more by releasing a 10m pinpoint shot which gave his team a 7-10 lead. With 3:59 to go, it was 7-11 after a converted penalty, and again, nothing promised any sharp change as the Serbs looked a bit tired and their scoreless phase was narrowing the 10 minute-mark. Then Nikola Lukic broke the ice after 9:47, with 3:37 on the clock, still, the next possessions were gone while the Magyars started to play with the time. Then Milos Milicic found the back of the net from the wing with 1:46 to go and the crowd smelled blood.

With 63 seconds remaining, Olympic champ Milos Cuk came up with a brilliant 6m blast which beat three blocking arms and the goalie and the miracle came closer. Jansik, netted four in the game, could have been the hero of the Magyars as he battled himself to a clear shooting position from the centre but hit the post and at the other end Cuk found sent the ball home once more and the fans to the seventh heaven, 14 seconds from time. Like in Brescia, leftie Marton Vamos took the last shot after a time-out, though this time from action, and the block denied him, so Ferencvaros had to settle for another away tie in two weeks.

Jadran v Dinamo 15-13 – The Georgians could hold on for eight minutes – trailed 3-2 after the first period – then Jadran started dominating. In the second period their centre-forwards delivered everything their team needed: action goals, exclusions, fine finishes in man-ups from the 2m line. It was a 7-goal hammering from the hosts, they were especially in the mood in the last minutes of the second period when they jumped from 7-5 to 10-5. At this stage, Dinamo looked a bit hopeless in front, the Croatian defence worked really well, they shut out their rivals for 8:34 minutes and expanded the gap to seven goals at 12-5 and kept that till the last break.

Then they laid back, changed the goalie, and considered the job done as they still led 15-8 with 5:47 remaining. But soon Dusan Vasic and his mates found the back of the net from three back-to-back possessions and Jadran’s lead started to diminish – after a while a bit faster as the clock was ticking down. With 2:16 to go it was 15-13, Dinamo netted six within this last period and it looked to be an open battle as the Croats lost their composure in offence too. However, the last two shots from the Georgians were saved by the post and the goalie, so the favourites avoided a bigger embarrassment.

Fixtures, Wednesday – Group B 19.00 Jug Adriatic Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO) v CN Marseille (FRA) 19.00 Spandau 04 Berlin (GER) v Waspo 98 Hannover (GER) 20.15 Crvena Zvezda (SRB) v OSC Budapest (HUN) 21.00 Pro Recco (ITA) v Steaua Bucharest (ROU)