The eighth day of the Champions League Group B produced a new surprise.
One of the favorites for the Champions League title, Olympiacos won only a point in the match against Radnicki in Kragujevac. The match ended in a 10:10 draw.
Radnicki and Olympiacos shared the points, which is a very good result for the Serbs. But, considering what happened in the water, the Greeks could be more satisfied. Radnicki (which left without two key players recently – Radulovic and Vico) was four goals down at halftime. But it produced a 6:0 run in the second half and led 10:8. The hosts held Olympiacos goalless for almost the entire second half – until the 32nd minute. But the Greeks saved a point with two goals in the last 58 seconds.
The hosts and the favorites recorded wins in the other three games, but only Pro Recco cruised to a victory.
Vouliagmeni edged out Waspo 98 Hannover – 10:9 and made another big step towards the Final Eight. Vouliagmeni was two goals down at halftime. But, the Greeks’ defense let only one goal in the second half, which was the key to the victory.
Barceloneta defeated Jadran Spit (8:6) harder than expected. A good opening of the game put Barceloneta on the right track.
Pro Recco demolished Dinamo Tbilisi (20:5).
Pro recco and Barceloneta were even happier when they found out the result of the game in Kragujevac, because both teams are two points ahead of Olympiacos now.
2022/23 Champions League, Day 8, Group A
Radnicki – Olympiacos 10:10 (2:5, 2:3, 3:0, 3:2)
Radnicki: Dobozanov, Brankovic 1, Stanojevic, Jankovic, Cuk, Kojic, Ukropina 4, Poznanovic, Pljevancic, Antic, Lukic 4, Vrlic 1, Todorovski. Head coach: Stevanovic.
Olympiacos: Bijac, Gkillas, Vamos, Genidounias 2, Fountoulis 2, Grammatikos, Dervisis, Buslje 1, Mourikis 2, Filipovic 1, Kolomvos, Papanastasiou 2, Zerdevas. Head coach: Milanovic.
After the first half, it seemed that Olympiacos would earn points with ease.
Radnicki’s Aleksa Ukropina opened the scoring, but Olympiacos dictated the pace in the first quarter and earned a 5:2 lead in the first eight minutes. At the beginning of the second period, Andro Buslje scored from a distance for 6:2. Still, Radnicki, which had a lot of youngsters on the roster, was able to come back into the game and halved the distance (4:6). But, in the last minute of the first half, the Greeks netted two goals and regained a 4-goal advantage. Konstantinos Genidounias sent the ball into the net with a clever lob shot (he noticed that the hosts’ goalkeeper was far from a net). Radnicki had a good chance in its last possession in the first half, but Bijac saved a shot from Jankovic. Olympiacos started a counterattack. Eight seconds before the buzzer, Papanastasiou scored from a counter for 8:4.
Aleksa Ukropina Photo: KVK Radnicki
The second half started in the same way as the first. Aleksa Ukropina netted a nice goal for 5:8. Radnicki played very well both in defense and attack. In the middle of the quarter, leftie Ukropina added another goal, and Radnicki halved the deficit again – 6:8 (in the meantime, the hosts had a chance from a penalty, but Bijac saved a shot from Jankovic).
An excellent defensive play, commanded by goalkeeper Lazar Dobozanov (12 saves today), and big support from the stands encouraged the hosts, who were coming closer and closer to the favorite from Piraeus. Three minutes before the last break, Nikola Lukic finished a quick attack for 7:8. That was the score before the final quarter
Lazar Dobozanov Photo: Total Waterpolo
Radnicki, which had only one classical center-forward on the team (Vrlic) didn’t run out of energy. It continued dictating the pace in the final quarter. Dobozanov posted one save after another. The hosts played disciplined. Three minutes and a half before the end, Lukic leveled at 8:8. But, Radnicki didn’t stop there. Aleksa Ukropina scored from a distance for 9:8 in the 30th minute. Nikola Lukic added his fourth goal with 77 seconds remaining on the clock and Radnicki entered the final minute with a 10:8 advantage.
But, the hosts couldn’t save a win. After 15:02 minutes of play, Olympiacos scored its first goal in the second half! Centre-forward Mourikis made it 9:10. Thirty seconds before the end, Vamos blocked a shot from Milos Cuk, and Olympiacos had the last possession in the match. Igor Milanovic called a time-out and set up a 7 on 6 attack. Marko Bijac went in front of the hosts’ goal. And that tactic paid off. Seven seconds before the end, Filip Filipovic found the net, and Olympacos saved the point – 10:10.
For the second time in the season, Radnicki lost a 2-goal advantage in the last minute. In January, Radnicki led 10:8 against Jadran in Split with 58 seconds to go, but the match ended in a 10:10 draw.
That’s why Radnicki’s head coach Uros Stevanovic wasn’t very satisfied after the match, despite the fact that his team played excellently and surprised the favorite:
“We experienced the same situation as in Split. Therefore, we didn’t win a point, but we lost two points in this game. Four points that we lost today and in Split would be very important for us in the battle for the Champions League Final Eight. We had some difficulties in the past weeks, we changed the roster in the middle of the season, but we go on. We are still in the battle for 4th place.”
Igor Milanovic, Olympiacos’ head coach said:
I congratulate my colleague Uros Stevanovic and Radnicki. They played very well. We came here as the favorites, but in the end, I can be happy with this point and because we didn’t lose, . After an excellent first half, we refused to play in the second half for some reason. Man-up attacks didn’t work well. A good defense with a man-down saved us, and thanks to that, we avoided a defeat.”
Barceloneta – Jadran 8:6 (4:0, 2:2, 1:1, 1:3)
Barceloneta: Aguirre, Famera 1, Paul, Munarriz 1, De Toro, Larumbe, Pavillard 1, Fernandez 1, Tahull 2, Perrone 2, Biel , Bustos, Porter. Head coach: Fatovic.
Jadran Split: Anic, Buric, Marinic Kragic 1, Cagalj, Butic, Pejkovic, Bukic 2, Zovic, Delic 1, Dobud, Setka, Duzevic 2, Marcelic. Head coach: Marelja.
Jadran showed a significantly better play than in a 5:9 loss to Barceloneta in Split (the score at halftime was 0:6 ten days ago), even though it had troubles before the match.
The game in Barcelona began at 13:00, which is unusual for Champions League matches. Still, the Spanish clubs play most games on weekends in the early afternoon.
The early start of the match was a problem for Jadran because the Croats had a lot of difficulties on their trip to Barcelona. Jadran planned to arrive in Barcelona by a flight via Germany. But due to workers’ strike at German airports, more than 2.000 flights were canceled yesterday. The Croatian club traveled by bus from Split to Milan and from Milan to Barcelona by plane. Jadran arrived at the hotel at about midnight after almost a 24-hour trip
Therefore, the Croats needed some time to wake up in the match. Barceloneta secured the win while Jadran was still waking up. The hosts earned a 4:0 lead in the first quarter. It seemed that the game would be similar to one in Split. But, Jadran started finding its rhythm in the second quarter. Barceloneta stretched the margin to five (6:1) deep into the second half, but it didn’t have control of the match. Jadran consolidated its defense, but it missed a lot of chances in attack and because of that, it couldn’t come close to the rival. At halftime, the score was 6:2.
There were no goals for a long in the second half. Two and a half minutes before the last break, Roger Tahull scored from a counterattack for 7:2 and sealed Barceloneta’s win. That goal was preceded by another Jadran’s mistake in the attack. The visitors had a counter, but Barceloneta’s goalkeeper Unai Aguirre stole the ball from Marinic Kragic and started an action that was finished by Tahull’s goal.
Roger Tahull Photo: Laszlo Balogh/Total Waterpolo
Jadran didn’t give up. It dictated the pace in the fourth quarter, but it didn’t endanger Barceloneta’s victory. In the 31st minute, Marinic Kragic scored the sixth goal of the visiting team for the final score.
“The only good thing in this game is that we won all three points. We started well and dominated in the first quarter. But after that, it looked like we spent 24 hours on a trip before the game, not Jadran. We made too many mistakes. We have to take some lessons from this match before the game against Pro Recco. “, Barceloneta’s head coach Elvis Fatovic said and congratulated Jadran on a good performance.
Jadran’s coach Jure Marelja could be satisfied with his team’s performance in Barcelona:
“We lost the match, but we still have a chance to finish 4th in the group and qualify for the Final Eight. I don’t lose hope”.
Vouliagmeni – Hannover 10:9 (4:3, 2:5, 3:1, 1:0)
Vouliagmeni: Tzortzatos, Chalyvopoulos 1, Kastrinakis, Kalogeropoulos 1, Troulos 1, Nikolaidis 3, Papasifakis 2, Woodhead, Alafragkis , Kapotsis 1, Kourovanis 1, Farmer, Andreadis. Head coach: Vujasinovic.
Waspo 98 Hannover: Goetz, Corusic, Schipper, Froreich, Schuetze 1, Radovic 1, Lozina 1, Macan, Huelshoff, GansenBenic 4, Basic 2, Benke. Head coach: Seehafer.
Vouliagmeni started well, but after that, it trailed for almost two quarters. Still, the Greeks collected three points and kept 4th place in the group. On the other side, after this loss, Hannover has little chance of reaching the F8. Ten points separate the Greek and the German club.
Vouliagmeni controlled the match against Hannover in Germany and recorded a 14:11 victory. Today, Vouliagmeni had to fight hard until the very end to earn all three points, and it managed to do that, thanks to an excellent defense in the second half.
The hosts started quite well. They led 2:0 and 4:2. Still, the Germans produced a big comeback, scoring four goals in a row. Ten seconds before the end, Schuetze made it 3:4. Hannover opened the second quarter with three straight goals and it led 6:4 in the middle of the period. Kalogeropoulos halved the distance from a penalty shot, but immediately after, Hrvoje Benic replied with a power play goal. Just 35 seconds before the end of the first half, Nikolaidis found the net (6:7). But, Benic responded once more. Hannover earned a man-up in its last possession. Three seconds before the end, Benic scored for 8:6. Benic was Hannover’s power engine in the first half, scoring half of the visitors’ goals – four.
But, after the middle break, Vouliagmeni tightened its defense and shut out Benic and Hannover’s other shooters. The second half began with a quick exchange of goals. After 50 seconds of play, Kapotsis cut the deficit, but Lozina scored for 9:7 in the 18th minute. In the remaining 14 minutes, the visitors couldn’t find the net.
Vouliagmeni caught up with the Germans 29 seconds before the last break, when Nikolaidis scored for 9:9. Hannover had a double man-up in the last four seconds of the quarter. Still, in the last second, goalkeeper Emmanouils Andreaidis (who replaced Tzortzatos in the third quarter) saved a shot from Benic. Andreadis was one of the heroes of Vouliagmeni’s victory. He posted seven saves in the second 16 minutes.
Nikolaos Papasifakis (Vouliagmeni) Photo by K.Vulovic/VK Primorac
Neither of the teams found good solutions in the attack in the final eight minutes. The only one who found the net in the fourth quarter was Nikolaos Papasifakis. Vouliagmeni failed to convert a man-up, but after the save, the ball returned to the Greeks. Papasifakis scored after a long pass from Chalyvpoulos for 10:9. It happened 03:57 minutes before the end. After that, Hannover missed its chances to equalize. Vouliagmeni focused on defense . Andreadis posted a few nice saves and the Greeks emerged as winners.
Vladimir Vujasinovic, Vouliagmeni’s head coach, said:
“After a series of hard matches and a lot of traveling in the past weeks, we ran out of energy. In this match, we didn’t have the energy we usually have. I am happy because the team reacted very well after the second quarter and managed to win in this tough game. We are all proud of what we have achieved so far. We have 13 points, we are on a good way, but the season is long.”
Karsten Seehafer, Waspo Hannover’s head coach:
“At the finish of the game, we missed a lot of opportunities to score, and there were a few posts. Still, we entered the season with a new team, which is still developing, and we have to be patient.”
Pro Recco – Dinamo T 20:5 (5:2, 4:0, 6:1, 5:2)
Pro Recco: Del Lungo, Di Fulvio 1, Zalanki 3, Figlioli 2, Younger 1, Fondelli 1, N.Presciutti 3, Echenique 1, Ivovic 3, Velotto 1, Aicardi 3, Hallock 1, Negri. Head coach: Sukno.
Dinamo Tbilisi: Razmadze, Kiriakidi, Akhvlediani 4, Dzikhtsiarenka, Tjeshelashvili, Vlahovic, Jakhaia, Saris, Imnaishvili, Magrakvelidze, Malyshau, Pjesivac 1, Gvetadze. Head coach: Stanojevic.
The European and the Georgian champion aren’t in the same weight category. As expected, Recco recrded a convincing win despite the fact that it started quite slowly. Recco took an opening 2:0 lead. Dinamo cut the deficit to one goal twice (1:2, 2:3). After that, Recco scored seven consecutive goals and went to 10:2. By the end, the margin increased to 15. All field players of Pro Recco got on the scoresheet, but the best scorer was Dinamo’s Akhvlediani, who found the net four times.
1.Pro Recco 8 games – 21 points (+52)
2. Barceloneta 8 – 21 (+36)
3. Olympiacos 8 – 19
4. Vouliagmeni 8 – 13
5. Radnicki 8 – 9
6. Jadran S 8 – 7
7. Hannover 8 – 3
8. Dinamo 8 – 0
Day 9
Group B (February 28): Brescia – Spandau 04, Novi Beograd – Ferencvaros, Marseille – Sabadell, Jug – OSC Budapest.
Group A (March 1): Vouliagmeni – Olympiacos, Pro Recco – Barceloneta, Waspo 98 Hannover – Dinamo Tbilisi, Radnicki – Jadran Split.
