2020 LEN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WATER POLO
- Qualifying: November 11-15, 2020
- Preliminary Round 1: December 14-18, 2020
- Preliminary Round 2: March 1-5, 2021
- Preliminary Round 3: April 19-23, 2021
- Final 8: June 3-5, 2021
- Match results
FORMAT
The LEN Champions League is a high-level European water polo competition. The league has been running since 1963, though the 2020 season was canceled amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The 2020-2021 season breaks up qualifying (November 2020) and the first round of group play (December 2020) in the year 2020, before continuing with the second round of group play (March 2021) and third round of group play (April 2021) in the spring. The season will conclude with the final 8 matching up in early June of 2021.
With the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing, the league will run each round of its matches in a bubble setting. Group A features six teams and Group B six more teams. They’ll play sets of matches on consecutive days within their groups, with the top four in each group across the preliminary rounds advancing to the final 8 tournament.
GROUP A
Three teams entered the day unbeaten in Group A, but a showdown between 2-0 Jug Adriatic and 2-0 Olympiacos promised to blemish someone’s perfect record.
The match was exactly the thriller fans hoped for. It was a defensive struggle early, with Olympiacos holding a 1-0 lead through the first period. Both teams exploded for a combined six goals in the second, with Olympiacos continuing to lead 5-2.
But Jug completed a torrid comeback, scoring three unanswered goals in the third, two from Paulo Obradovic. Obradovic would finish the match with four goals on five shots, including the dagger goal that put Jug up 9-7 with just two minutes to go. Jug would win the match 9-8 and remain tied for the lead through the final day of action for Group A.
Pro Recco also remained unbeaten, drubbing Spandau 04 Berlin 19-6. Aaron John Younger put together four goals on four shots for a dominant Pro Recco lineup that got goals from a whopping 11 different players.
CC Ortigia beat CN Marseille 11-10 with trios of goals from Christian Napolitano and Valentino Gallo.
Rankings
- Pro Recco / Jug Adriatic: 9 points
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- Olympiacos: 6 points
- CC Ortigia: 3 points
- CN Marseille / Spandau 04 Berlin: 0 points
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Group B
It was just the second day of matches for Group B, with the final three matchups coming tomorrow.
An Brescia remained unbeaten through two days, dispatching FTC Telekom Budapest 10-7. That came just one day after FTC Telekom blew out Jadran Herceg 11-2. Giacomo Cannella scored three times for An Brescia. That included a tone-setting run of two goals within about 30 seconds of playing time. He scored with just two seconds left in the first period to put An Brescia up 3-1, then scored less than 30 seconds into the following period to build an intimidating 4-1 margin that FTC Telekom could never overcome.
Zodiac CNB got a dominating win to stay tied with An Brescia for the group lead. Zodiac pummelled Dinamo Tbilisi 17-5, taking over early with a run of six unanswered goals early before Dinamo finally got on the board in the middle of the second period. Alvaro Granados Ortega had five goals on seven shots for Zodiac.
Meanwhile Jadran Herceg Novi came off its disappointing blowout loss yesterday to grab a thrilling 12-11 win over Waspo Hannover. Jadran Herceg Novi scored six times as many goals today as they did against FTC Telekom Budapest a day earlier. Kanstantsin Averka scored five times himself after scoring only once in the first match.
Rankings
- Zodiac CNAB / An Brescia: 6 points
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- FTC Telekom Budapest / Jadran Herceg Novi : 3 points
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- Waspo98 Hannover / Dinamo Tbilisi: 0 points