The playoffs in the Serbian Championships have started, with the first leg of the quarterfinals.
Most of the matches ended as expected – Novi Beograd, Partizan, and Radnicki recorded convincing wins. An encounter between Sabac (5th place in the league) and Crvena Zvezda (4th place) was a thriller that ended in a 13:13 draw. Sabac’s goalkeeper Radoslav Filipovic scored an equalizer in the last second.
Jadran and Primorac made no mistake in the 9th round of the Montenegrin League.
2021/22 Serbian league, quarterfinals (best of two)
Proleter – Novi Beograd 6:24 (2:5, 2:8, 0:3, 2:8)
Proleter:Cabrilo 2, Matkovic 2,Petrovic 1, Trkulja 1.
Novi Beograd: S. Rasovic 4, Vucinic 3, Gogov 3, Perkovic 3, Martinovic 2, Vlachopoulos 2, Drasovic 2, V.Rasović 1.
Vojvodina – Radnicki 11:18 (3:6, 4:2, 2:5, 2:5)
Vojvodina: Bogdanovic 5, Maric 1, Bursac 1, Brescanski 1, Biocanin 1, Rogac 1, Radanovic 1.
Radnicki: Radulovic 4, Lukic 3, Brankovic 2, Ukropina 2, Jankovic 1, Cuk 1, Krug 1, Toholj 1, Milicic 1, Vrlic 1.
Valis – Partizan 10:17 (2:4, 4:3, 3:5, 1:5)
Valis: Kovacevic 3, Sofranac 2, Andjelic 2, Zivojinović 1, Porobic 1, B. Gavrilovic 1.
Partizan: Vickovic 3, Bowen 3, Vico 3, Milos 3, Kojic 2, Gak 1, Nesic 1, Vavic 1.
Sabac – Crvena Zvezda 13:13 (2:4, 4:1, 4:4, 3:4)
Sabac: Sulc 5, Repanovic 4, Tubic 2, Filipovic 1, Koptsev 1.
Crvena Zvezda: Subotic 4, Djurdjic 3, Pjesivac 2, Markovic 1, Vukadinovic 1, Gardasevic 1.
Sabac earned a one-goal lead (6:5) in the first half of the match against Crvena Zvezda and maintained a slim advantage until the last break (10:9). Crvena Zvezda made a turn. The visitors had a 13:12 lead at the finish of the game and had the ball possession in the last 30 seconds of the match. They wanted to double the lead, but a shot from Zvezda’s player went wide with six seconds to go. Sabac called a time-out. After a 30-seconds break, Sabac’s goalkeeper Radoslav Filipovic took responsibility, he beat the buzzer and scored in the last second for the final score – 13:13.
However, Crvena Zvezda is still closer to the semifinals. It will have a home-field advantage in the return leg (a team with a better aggregate score will advance to the last four).
Sabac’s Kristijan Sulc (who moved from Crvena Zvezda to Sabac last year) was the best scorer with five goals. Mihajlo Repanovic (Sabac) and Gavril Subotic (Crvena Zvezda) netter four each.
Novi Beograd ran over Proleter, with four goals from Strahinja Rasovic.
Radnicki opened the match against Vojvodine quite well. The hosts played better in the second quarter, but Radnicki dominated after the middle break. Vojvodina’s Nikola Bogdanovic scored five goals. The best scorer on the winning team was Marko Radulovic (four).
Partizan secured a 7-goal win against Valis in Valjevo, thanks to the second half of the game (10:4). Nemanja Vico, Lovre Milos, Lazar Vickovic and Alex Bowen scored three goals each for Partizan. Valis’ Kovacevic found Partizan’s net three times.
The return leg is on March 26.
2021/22 Montenegrin League, Day 8
Primorac – Budva 9:6 (2:1, 2:3, 2:0, 3:2) – play-by-play action and statistics
Jadran HN – Cattaro 16:5 (4:3, 3:1, 3:1, 6:0) play-by-play action and statistics
There were no surprises in the ninth round of the Montenegrin League.
Jadran HN, led by Matija Sladovic (3 goals), cruised to a win over Cattaro – 16:5.
Primorac beat Budva harder than expected. The Kotor-based side had a 3:1 lead early in the third period. But, Budva took control and came back into the match, scoring three goals in a row. A minute before the middle break, Budva had a 4:3 advantage. However, Primorac kept the visitors goalless for almost 13 minutes while it produced a 4:0 series. Primorac built a 7:4 advantage in the 27th minute and kept the distance until the end. Dusan Matkovic made the difference. He scored three goals for Primorac.
1.Jadran HN 9 – 24
2. Primorac 9 – 18
3. Budva 9 – 7
4. Cattaro 9 – 1
For all results, live scores and the schedule visit the page 2021/22 Montenegrin Championship, Total Waterpolo Arena
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