Courtesy: LEN
The male team of Sabadell wrote history by claiming its first-ever European trophy after blowing away Italy’s Palermo in the return leg of the final. Goalie Eduardo Lorrio was the hero of the game, his 15 stops and 75% saving percentage was instrumental in Sabadell’s triumph. The Spanish side, whose women had won the Euro League five times, joined as the 7th member of an elite circle where both the men and women teams from the same club won at least one European cup title.
Euro Cup, final, 2nd leg: Astralpool Sabadell (ESP) v Telimar Palermo (ITA) 11-5
Aggregate score: 18-14
It took seven minutes to see the first goal in the grand battle, Sabadell’s Konstantin Averka sent the ball home from the perimeter – otherwise the defences dominated, both sides missed four man-ups apiece in the opening eight minutes.
The Spaniards continued to work extremely well in the back, their goalie Eduardo Lorrio came up with a magnificent performance delivering nine saves alone in sixteen minutes. Indeed, he was 9/9 as Palermo lost its composure in offence and was unable to score in the entire first half, while the hosts – propelled by the tremendous noise created by the capacity crowd – scored three more action goals to build a massive 4-0 lead by halftime, so they led by two in aggregate.
Andrija Basic finally broke the ice for Palermo, after 17:18 minutes, but Sergi Cabanas netted a man-up right from the next attack. The Italians had a better spell then, managed to halt the home sides’ march in front and Max Irving converted two penalties so the visitors were back to even at 5-3, at least in aggregate. But they couldn’t hold on, Dusan Banisevic buried a 6 on 5 to end the hosts’ almost four-minute silence, then they killed another man-down and Averka’s penalty goal reset the four-goal cushion. With five seconds to go in third, Basic pulled one back to score Palermo’s first man-up goal (they missed the first seven).
They were unable to come closer, though – they had numerous chances but the Spanish defence was simply brilliant as they killed three more man-downs in as many possessions early in the fourth, Lorrio delivered more saves – while at the other end Bernat Sanahuja hit one from an extra, and 48 seconds later Marcel Teclas’ nice centre-action gave a 9-4 lead to Sabadell.
Irving scored one from a counter but a lucky man-up goal from Sanahuja – the ball hit the crossbar then bounced in from the goalie’s back – sealed the Spanish triumph at 10-5 with 3:01 on the clock. The last Italian man-up was business as usual for the home defence – they held Palermo 1 for 12 –, it was catch No. 15 for Lorrio who finished the game with an outstanding 75% saving percentage. The festival got into full swing when Averka netted his third from a counter to send the home fans to seventh heaven.
With this win, Sabadell became the 7th club where both the male and the female team managed to clinch at least one European trophy – the Spaniards, whose women won the Euro League five times, joined Recco (ITA), Olympiacos (GRE), Roma (ITA), Honved (HUN), Vouliagmeni (GRE) and Shturm (RUS).
Also, this was the first Spanish victory in this competition since 2004 – and the first for the Sabadell men who had reached the final ten years ago, then lost to Savona, the team which they managed to oust in a record-breaking 34-shot penalty shootout in the quarters. There they were on the edge, just like against Barcelona in the semis, but on Saturday there was no question that they were the better side.