Recco let no surprise and set up replay of 2022 final

June 1, 2023

Marco Del Lungo Photo by Laszlo Balogh/Total Waterpolo

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.

The sensation didn’t happen, but the Greek club proved it deserved a spot in the semifinals.

Vouliagmeni fought bravely from the first whistle. After three minutes, the Greeks led 2:0. At the first break, they were 3:2 up.

In the 9th minute, Vouliagmeni rebuilt a 2-goal advantage – Papasifakis found the net from the 5m line for 4:2. In the first half, the game looked like an encounter between the rivals of similar qualities and similar budgets. Vouliagmeni controlled the result. Recco was trailing for almost the entire second quarter. Echenique halved the distance from a man-up. But, American Woodhead responded immediately – 5:3. Vouliagmeni kept a 2-goal advantage for a while. Still, with two action goals in the last two minutes, Pro Recco caught up with the Greeks. 17 seconds before the middle break, Echenique fired the ball for 5:5.

Ben Hallock

In the second half, the game turned into something that was expected: Recco, Recco… The defending champion dominated; it scored five unanswered goals in the third period. Two of these were confirmed only after the VAR reviews. The check was needed after Cannella converted a man-up for 8:5 in the middle of the quarter (the referees controlled if the time for the attack expired), and after DI Fulvio’s goal for 10:5 in the 24th minute (a checking was needed to be seen if the ball crossed an imaginary goal line).

Vouliagmeni didn’t surrender, the Greeks continued battling, but after Recco’s 8:0 series, the contest was over. There is no club in the world that can erase a 5-goal deficit in the duel with the Italian giant. Recco had a 6-goal advantage (12:6). Vouliagmeni reduced the gap, and four goals are maybe the real difference considering what was happening throughout 32 minutes.

POST GAME QUOTES

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

POST-GAMES QUOTES

More articles about the Champions League

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. For more video content, subscribe to our Youtube Channel and Tik Tok account