Two Italian teams Brescia and Ortigia, Oradea (Romania) and Eger (Hungary) advanced to the semifinals of the LEN Euro Cup.
The games of the return leg of the quarterfinals were played today. There were a lot of thrills in an encounter between Eger and Strasbourg. Eger secured the spot among the 4 best teams after a penalty shootout.
Only one goal decided a winner in the duel Vouliagmeni-Ortigia, as well as in the clash of Mataro and Oradea.
Brescia secured the semifinals after the 1st leg.
LEN Euro Cup, quarterfinals, Leg 2
Strasbourg – Eger 13:10 (2:2, 3:0, 3:3, 2:1, pso 3:4) – first match 8:12
Strasbourg: Babic 3 (1 in pso), Bratic 3, Markovic 2, Cesca 2 (1), Letica 2 (1), Jablonski 1.
Eger: S. Rasovic 3 (1), Csacsovszky 2 (1), Hosnzanszky 2 (1), Decker 1, Gyarfas 1 (1), Baksa 1.
Team Strasbourg was very close to the semifinals, despite Eger posted a nice 4-goal win in the first match. In the end, penalty shootout decided a winner.
In the middle of the 1st quarter, Eger had a slim advantage (2:1), but the hosts kept the Hungarians scoreless until the middle break and built a 5:2 lead before the third quarter. Both sides scored three goals each in the third period, so the French maintained a 3-goal advantage before the final eight minutes.
In the 4th minute of the last period, Cesca converted a man-up and Strasbourg finally annulled the deficit from Eger, the French went 9:5 up. Eger’s Csacsovszky responded quickly after that for 9:6, while Babic gave Strasbourg a new 4-goals lead (10:6) three and a half minutes from the end. There were no goals in the remaining time, so the thriller continued in a penalty shootout.
Both goalkeepers blocked the shots in the first series of penalties. In the following three series all the scorers sent the ball into the net. Before the 5th series, the score was 13:9. Strahinja Rasovic scored in the 5th series for Eger (13:10), while the visitors’ goalkeeper blocked the shot on the other side and the Hungarian team went to the semifinals.
Mataro – Oradea 10:8 (3:1, 3:2, 2:3, 2:2) – first match 9:12
Quadis CN Mataro: Guimaraes 3, Minguez 1, Bertran 1, Daura 1, Codina 1, Barbema 1, Yanez 1.
CSM Digi Oradea: Dragomirescu 2, Popoviciu 2, V. Georgescu 1, Ilisie 1, R. Georgescu 1, Czenk 1.
Oradea secured the spot in the semifinals, as it managed to keep the 3-goal advantage earned in Romania.
Mataro opened the match well. The Spaniards led 3:1 after the first quarter, while they made a desired 3-goal difference late into the second quarter (6:3). Oradea reduced the gap and Mataro entered the last period with a 2-goal lead (8:6). The Spaniards managed to extend the margin twice in the last quarter (9:6 and 10:7), but the Romanians cut the deficit on both occasions. Mataro had an extra player in the last 13 seconds to secure a penalty shootout, but they didn’t score and Oradea reached the semifinals with an aggregate result 20:19.
Vouliagmeni – Ortigia 6:7 (3:3, 2:2, 0:0, 1:2) – first match 9:9
NC Vouliagmeni: Gkiouvetsis 2, Afroudakis 1, Vukcevic 1, Basic 1, Kalogeropoulos 1.
Ortigia:Vidovic 2, Napolitano 2, Ferrero 1, Giacoppo 1, Rossi 1.
The first match, played in Syracuse, was ended with no winner, so everything was open before the start of today’s encounter.
After a few twists and turns in the first half, the score was 5:5 at halftime. There were no goals in the third period. Quickly after the last break, Napolitano put Ortigia in front (6:5). Vukicevic responded 26 later and equalised 6:6. After that, both teams missed a few nice chances, while Simone Rossi converted a man-up for 7:6 two minutes from the end. In the remaining time, the Italians kept the minimal advantage.
Miskolc – Brescia 10:11 (2:2, 1:1, 3:5, 4:3) – first match 10:17
MVLC Miskolc: Vadovics 3, Krijestorac 2, Stjanovic 2, Nagy 1, Bedo 1, Misic 1
AN Brescia: Cannella 5, Nikolaidis 2, Alesiani 2, Buha 1, Figari 1.
Brescia brought from Italy a 7-goal advantage, so Miskolc didn’t have a big chance to advance to the semifinals. The Italians controlled today’s game and let Miskolc go ahead just once early in the second period (3:2). Brescia dominated, Giacomo Canella killed all Hungarians’ hopes with 5 goals.
