Courtesy: LEN
While Novi Beograd and Brescia both bagged the next three points with ease, last season’s bronze medallist Ferencvaros suffered a stunning defeat in Berlin. Jug found their way back to the winning track so gain back some ground in the race for the F8.
Group B: Jug Adriatic Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO) v Astralpool Sabadell (ESP) 14-10, Spandau 04 Berlin (GER) v FTC-Telekom Budapest (HUN) 11-10, CN Marseille (FRA) v Novi Beograd (SRB) 13-17, AN Brescia (ITA) v Genesys OSC Budapest (HUN) 14-6
Standings: 1. Novi Beograd 13, 2. Brescia 12, 3. Ferencvaros 9, 4. Jug 7, 5. OSC 5, 6. Spandau 5, 7. Marseille 4, 8. Sabadell 1
At Novi Beograd’s games entertainment is guaranteed as the offensive force of their star-studded line-up is second to none – they already produced 73 goals in five matches, and this was their third encounter where they netted 16 or more. Marseille tried to keep up, but they were forced into a chasing game and that burnt them. The French could never cut the gap to a single goal, and the Serbs always managed to hold on for a three-goal lead at half-time and before the last break. In the fourth they scored three in a row for 9-15 and there was no way back for the French who dropped to the 7th place.
For a bit of a contrast, Brescia showed some outstanding defending once more, after two home games where they had conceded 4 goals apiece, now they limited OSC to 6 goals while hitting 14 to add three more points with ease.
The shock of the day came in Berlin where Ferencvaros fell at the end of the day. The Hungarians had a better spell in the second period, but after 4-5 Spandau managed to net two in 50 seconds to take back the lead before the middle break and from that point the Germans were in control. They could have won the match earlier when they had led by two goals but missed some crucial man-ups, and Stylianos Argyropoulos brought FTC back to even with his 4th goal as 1:19 remained from the game. However, Roman Shepelev also hit his fourth 59 seconds from time and two big catches from Spandau’s Hungarian goalie Laszlo Baksa sealed the hosts’ first win in this season.
Jug had to work hard to down Sabadell, but the Croats could finally break the Spaniards in the third period and secured a crucial win to take back the fourth qualifying spot.