The final of the 2023 Champions League will be a replay of the last year’s final Novi Beograd – Olympiacos.
Earlier today, host Novi Beograd advanced to the gold medal match after a thrilling contest with Barceloneta (12:10).
Pro Recco joined the Serbs beating Vouliagmeni 12:8 in the last match of the second day of the tournament.
The reigning champion recorded a convincing win, but it needed a lot of time to secure a safe advantage. Vouliagmeni achieved a big success by teaching the Final Eight. Yesterday the Greeks shocked Brescia in the quarterfinals and made it a step further.
Still, Vouliagmeni wasn’t able to make a new sensation, despite the fact they fought hard in the semis. The Greeks led by two goals in the first half (2:0, 4:2, 5:3). Recco started rolling at the finish of the second quarter. It scored seven goals in a row, turned around a 2-goal deficit to a 10:5 lead and secured itself a peaceful ending without stress.
Ferencvaros defeated Brescia 9:8 in the second match of the 5th-8th place semifinals and will battle against Olympiacos for 5th place.
The 5th-place and the 7th-place matches are tomorrow, the medal games are scheduled for Saturday. Full schedule and results on Total Waterpolo Arena.
2023 Final Eight Belgrade, Semifinal 2
Vouliagmeni – Pro Recco 8:12 (3:2, 2:3, 0:5, 3:2)
Vouliagmeni:Tzortzatos, Chalyvopoulos, Almyras 1, Kalogeropoulos 1, Troulos 1, Nikolaidis 1, Papasifakis 2, Woodhead 1, Alafragkis 1, Kapotsis, Kourovanis, Farmer. Head coach: Vujasinovic.
Pro Recco: Del Lungo, Di Fulvio 2, Zalanki 1, Cannella 1, Younger 1, N.Presciutti, Echenique 3, Ivovic, Iocchi Gratta, Loncar, Hallock 2, Negri. Head coach: Sukno.
Ben Hallock
Semifinals 5th – 8th place, Match 2
Brescia – Ferencvaros 8:9 (1:3, 3:1, 2:2, 2:3)
Brescia: Tesanovic, Dolce, C.Prsciutti, Gianazza 1, Lazic, Vapenski 1, Renzuto, Kharkov 2, Alesiani 1, Luongo 1, Di Somma 2, Gitto, Baggi Necchi. HEad coach: Bovo.
Ferencvaros:Vogel, Molnar, Vadovics, Merkulov 2, Argyropoulos 2, Ubovic, Fekete, Ven.Vigvari 1, Nagz, D.Varga 3, Jansik 1, DamonteSzakonyi. Head coach: Zs. Varga
Ferencvaros and Olympiacos will face in the 5th-place match. Ferencvaros narrowly defeated Brescia and joined Olympiacos in the 5th-place game. The Greeks demolished Jug earlier today.
Ferencvaros controlled the result for most of the time. Brescia took the lead for the first time in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t save an advantage.but the match was open until the dying seconds.
Daniil Merkulov Photo by Laszlo Balogh
The first quarter belonged to Ferencvaros, but Brescia caught up with the rival before the third period. Ferencvaros rebuilt a 2-goal lead with two early goals from Jansik and Merkulov in the third quarter (6:4). Brescia quickly leveled at 6:6 (20th minute). Argyropoulos gave FTC a 7:6 lead from a penalty at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Brescia responded with 2:0.
Three minutes before the end, Edoardo Di Somma converted a man-up for 8:7. Denes Varga replied immediately in the same manner, by scoring from a 6 on 5 for 8:8. Thirty-two seconds before the end, Merkulov scored a winner for Ferencvaros
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