Challenger Cup Men: Favourites start Final Eight with big wins in Istanbul
Three lop-sided contests, won by the favourites ENKA Sport Klub, EVK Zaibas and hosts Galatasaray SK, and an extremely tough and thrilling battle kicked off the opening day of the Challenger Cup Men Final Eight in Istanbul. The two Maltese sides, Sliema ASC Nexawin and San Giljan ASC, produced all the excitement in the first round, where Montenegrin legend Alexander Ivovic scored the winner in this 31-goal epic that saw four red cards.
2025/26 Challenger Cup Men
Final Eight
Thursday 12 March
Group A
Enka Sport Klub (TUR) 17-9 Vitoria Sport Clube (POR)
AVK Branik Maribor (SLO) 9-15 EVK Zaibas (LIT)
Group B
Sliema ASC Nexawin (MLT) 16-15 San Giljan ASC (MLT)
Galatasaray SK (TUR) 18-7 Heybeliada ASC (TUR)
Group A
ENKA Sport Club (TUR) 17-9 Vitoria Sport Clube (POR)
AVK Branik Maribor (SLO) 9-15 EVK Zaibas (LTU)
Favourites ENKA Sport Club and EVK Zaibas opened their respective campaigns with commanding wins at the expense of Vitoria Sport Clube and AVK Branik Maribor.
In the first game, ENKA were forced to work hard for three periods before delivering a killer blow in the fourth period against the Portuguese, who also came up with a fine performance but ran out of steam at the end.
In the first 12 minutes, until 4-4, Vitoria were never behind, even leading at 0-2, 2-3 and 3-4, then ENKA took over and, with a trademark centre-shot from veteran Greek Christodoulos Kolomvos with 25 seconds remaining, they moved 6-5 ahead by half-time.
After an early exchange of goals in the third, the Portuguese managed to put away two man-ups in quick succession to regain the lead at 7-8, but Yusa Duzenli equalised from action and, as a result of a counter, he also netted a penalty 21 seconds later for 9-8.
Vitoria missed a crucial man-up and Arda Yener hit another one from action 14 seconds before the buzzer and ENKA led by two for the first time.
More goals came in the fourth, two fast blasts doubled the Turks’ advantage in just a minute and a bit later Kolomvos also finished off a counter to make it 13-8.
It went from bad to worse for their rivals as Rui Ramos’ penalty was well saved by Huseyin Kil and Kolomvos added another centre-goal from the next possession to expand ENKA’s run to 7-0.
It was game over time, though Vitoria pulled one back, but the Turks scored three more, including two more action goals from Duzenli, who finished the match with six hits as ENKA’s magnificent 7-1 rush in the fourth secured a huge win for them.
In the following match, Maribor had what looked like a good start, taking the lead three times, but the Lithuanians netted two action goals in 44 seconds before the first break to make it 3-4.
It was just a preview of what was coming next – Zaibas’ Croatian master shooters Marin Vrdoljak and Marko Jelaca came up with a series of pinpoint shots in the first three minutes which gave Zaibas a massive 3-7 advantage.
Miha Santak managed to halt their run from a six-on-five, but the Slovenians were unable to convert their next four, all before the middle break, while Daniel Vitkauskas made the most of a counter after the first killed man-down to set the 4-8 half-time score.
The third saw a more balanced game despite Zaibas expanding the gap to five goals at 5-10, but here Branik staged a great surge and climbed back to 9-11 with 1:10 remaining.
However, the Lithuanians forced a penalty in their next possession, Vrdoljak buried it to lift the spirits of his side as they could start the fourth with a three-goal lead at 9-12.
Jelaca hit a fierce one from the perimeter 27 seconds into the fourth, which killed Branik’s momentum for good.
In fact, the Slovenians were unable to score any more goals, while Zaibas added two more to seal a great win on the opening day.
Group B
Sliema ASC Nexawin (MLT) 16-15 San Giljan ASC (MLT)
Galatasaray SK (TUR) 18-7 Heybeliada ASC (TUR)
The “Turkish–Maltese” group kicked off with the in-house battles and the Maltese sides produced a thriller. It was somewhat marred by a couple of rough scenes where red cards were supposed to serve as a calmer, but the fight remained tense till the end, resulting in 32 exclusions and eight players sitting out with either three fouls or direct red cards.
Sliema jumped to a 5-2 lead in the opening period but San Giljan hit twice in the last 34 seconds for 5-4.
Matthew Zammit netted an extra to make it even at the start of the second period, but Liam Galea replied with a double in 65 seconds to make it 7-5.
US star Marko Vavic fired one in from 6m to halve the distance and soon the Zammit brothers added two more, Nikolai converted a six-on-five, Daniel hit one from action to stage their second 0-3 surge which also gave them a 7-8 advantage by half-time.
It could have been more, but they missed a brief six-on-four shortly before the middle break, then a single extra early in the third and that hit back as Julian Chircop equalised from action for 8-8.
One goal apiece kept the score even, then, after two minutes of hard battling, Italy’s veteran Niccolo Gitto, world champion in 2011, put Sliema ahead once more with a 6m blast.
Alika Naone levelled it up once more, but Galea buried a penalty and Jake Cachia put away an extra after a time-out and Sliema led 12-10 with 58 seconds remaining.
The dying seconds brought the first fight where the ball didn’t play any role, which led to the ejection of Daniel Rizzo and Ben Plumpton.
When Gitto sent the ball home from a man-up 25 seconds into the fourth for 13-10, Sliema seemed to have it. But within a minute they lost two players with third fouls, including Gitto and even though they survived the man-downs, soon an action goal from Luigi Dimech halted San Giljan’s five-minute-long drought.
Jeremy Abela was also expelled after Sam Engerer made it 14-11, but Sliema lost their fourth player – Dino Zammit – and that started ruining their rotation.
Though they managed to reply to San Giljan’s next goal for 15-12, then Vavic hit two in 35 seconds to cut their deficit to one goal and after Sliema missed their next six-on-five after a time-out, the Olympic bronze medallist American scored his seventh goal of the game to tie it at 15-15, with 54 seconds to go.
Sliema were in trouble, but there came the big man, Aleksandar Ivovic, who had just done the hard work so far, but when it really mattered, the Montenegrin legend stepped up and triggered his trademark blast from 6m which won the match for Sliema with 0:43 on the clock as their rivals were unable to save the encounter to a shootout.
In the all-Turkish match, Galatasaray rallied to a 5-0 lead and everything looked easy for the hosts. However, their domestic rivals scored two late goals and even though Dejan Vujovic came up with a buzzer-beater, Heybeliada really got going in the second adding three more in a row to make it 6-5.
Vujovic was the one who stopped the further sinking of the favourites, but Heybeliada managed to score a couple more, while Ali Erdag’s action goal doubled the gap for 9-7 before half-time.
After killing a man-down early in the third, Oguz Senemoglu scored a great one from action, then both sides missed an extra before Atakan Destici blasted another one for Galata.
In contrast, Heybeliada wasted their third six-on-five in a row and Vujovic made them pay as he scored the third action goal in this quarter and the hosts led 12-7 with eight minutes remaining.
As it turned out, Galatasaray restored order and never let their rivals back into the game. They needed 35 seconds to add two more inside the first minute of the fourth and carried on that momentum till the end.
The favourites managed to shut out their rivals for the entire second half – they staged a 10-0 rush after 8-7 to land all three points with ease.
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Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics
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