Italian giants Pro Recco celebrate first Euro Cup triumph

Pro Recco finally lifted the famous Euro Cup trophy after defeating SPD Radnicki 12-9 in the second-leg of the final on Saturday night in Sori. Recco’s Giacomo Cannella led the scoring with four goals, and a first-half defensive masterclass – alongside a string of clinical finishes – helped steer the Italians to a comfortable 28-21 aggregate victory. The win also completed Recco’s impressive medal haul, as this title was the only one missing from their glittering collection.

2024/25 Euro Cup Men  
Final, Second-Leg
Saturday 24 May 2025

Pro Recco (ITA) 12-9 SPD Radnicki (SRB)
(Aggregate score: 28-21)

Pro Recco’s players, coaches and fans are celebrating the club’s first Euro Cup triumph after another masterful performance against the Serbian champions SPD Radnicki on Saturday night in Sori.

The Italians gained the upper-hand in the first-leg by winning 16-12 in Kragujevac two weeks’ ago and they finished the job off powerfully in their home pool with a 12-9 victory.

‘This victory means a lot, as everyone knows what happened [to the club] last summer,’ said Recco captain Francesco Di Fulvio after lifting the trophy. ‘Thanks to the president, Maurizio Felugo, he found a really amazing solution, so we are still here and next year we will play in the Champions League again.

‘Now, we are going to celebrate because I think we deserve it. We passed through a lot of very bad moments during the season, but we didn’t hide. We showed everyone that we are a great group, with a lot of great players.

‘Radnicki didn’t have anything to lose tonight, as they lost by four goals in the first game, so they came here to try to put us in a bad position. But we came into the water with the right attitude, we were focused on our defence and we had a lot of solutions in attack.’

Recco trailed by three goals twice in Serbia, but they made sure Radnicki were kept firmly at arm’s length throughout the decisive second-leg.

The Italians were never behind and extended their aggregate four-goal lead to an unassailable eight by half-time.

Goals from Petar Vujosevic, Francesco Condemi and Giacomo Cannella in the opening quarter, along with some strong defending, set the tone.

Radnicki equalised twice at 1-1 and 2-2 through Boris Vapenski and Radomir Drasovic – with the latter fortunate to see his saved penalty rebound kindly to him – but they trailed 3-2 at the first break.

In the second, Nikola Jaksic levelled the scores at 3-3 after 85 seconds, but that signalled the start of a disappointing drought for the visitors, as their attack fizzled out.

Recco were still dominating in defence and goalkeeper Marco Del Lungo also frustrated the Serbian forwards with several stunning saves.

At the other end, the Italian champions were beginning to really click, and a 4-0 rush – which included three penalties in a row from Cannella (twice) and Condemi – started to take the trophy even further away from Radnicki.

Condemi completed his hat-trick at the start of the third and an Aaron Younger strike piled more misery onto the Serbians, who were now 9-3 behind on the night.

After building a 10-goal aggregate lead, Recco’s concentration levels appeared to drop a little and Valiko Dadvani took advantage by finally finding a way past Del Lungo to end Radnicki’s eight-minute barren spell.

Vapenski then fired in a stunning shot from distance to make it 9-5 and Strahinja Rasovic calmly converted a penalty to cut the gap to three.

In the fourth, Nikola Jaksic was on target from a six on five to score Radnicki’s fourth without reply, but Younger halted the visitors’ momentum with a goal from a well-worked man-up to make the score 10-7 with 6:26 remaining.

Nikola Jaksic hit his third of the night from a penalty, then Recco’s USA international Ben Hallock fired in from a six on five for 11-8.

Rasovic swam up to take Radnicki’s fourth penalty of the game, but Del Lungo saved it by brilliantly deflecting the ball high over the crossbar with his left hand.

After hammering in five goals in the first-leg, Recco captain Francesco Di Fulvio had been kept relatively quiet in the second-leg, but he eventually found his range with an unstoppable 6m shot from the left side with 3:37 left to play.

Vapenski finished the scoring with a consolation strike 2:50 from time, but by then the fans inside the arena had already started celebrating and Recco were able to close the game out comfortably.

The win secured Recco their third trophy of another majestic season, which saw them triumph in the Italian cup and league championship as well.

It was also the perfect send-off for Recco stars Ben Hallock, Aaron Younger and Marco Del Lungo, as they are all set to leave the club this summer.

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Andy Rollé for European Aquatics

 






  





 

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