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 B
In a battle of 2-0 teams, Zodiac CNAB knocked off An Brescia to retain the Group B lead through the end of preliminary round 1.
Zodiac’s offense had been nearly unstoppable so far this week in 16-8 and 17-5 wins. An Brescia goalkeeper Marco del Lungo held Zodiac to just half of their previous round-low in scoring, registering ten saves. But Zodiac goalkeeper Daniel Lopez Pinedo one-upped him with 13 saves and just six goals given up.
Zodiac really got going in a 2-0 third period to build a 6-3 lead. The teams would roughly split the final period, ending in an 8-6 Zodiac win.
FTC Telekom Berlin returned to their dominating ways a day after losing to An Brescia. FTC Telekom crushed Waspo98 Hannover by a 19-6 margin in the day’s highest-scoring game. Vendel Csaba Vigvari scored four times to lead FTC Telekom Berlin.
And Dinamo Tbilisi got its first win, beating Jadran Herceg Novi 11-8. Those two teams are now tied for 4th, a key battle as the top four teams in the Group after all three preliminary rounds will advance to the final 8.
Final Round 1 RANKINGS
- Zodiac CNAB: 9 points
- An Brescia / FTC Telekom Budapest: 6 points
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- Jadran Herceg Novi / Dinamo Tbilisi: 3 points
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- Waspo98 Hannover: 0 points