Water polo: Champions, Recco and Novi Beograd in the final

Another piece of history is around the corner, 32 minutes of suffering and we’ll know. Pro Recco in Belgrade continues to caress the dream of a third consecutive Champions League – a feat only Mladost managed between 1968 and 1970 – after beating Vouliagmeni 12-8. Saturday the last act against Novi Beograd: it will therefore be the same final as a year ago, when the hosts surrendered on penalties (17-16) and the biancocelesti conquered the star cup.

DIESEL

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Against the Greeks, who the day before had defeated Brescia by surprise (11-10) and are led by the former Recchese Vujasinovic, Sukno’s team starts very contracted. He also goes down by two goals (2-0, 4-2, 5-3), could even slip to -3, then picks up the pace, shows his claws and places a devastating 7-0 break between the second and third half, reaching 10-5 which makes the last eight minutes pure academy. Difficult to choose the best player on the pitch, from goalkeeper Del Lungo to Fondelli, from Echenique to Presciutti and Loncar. The other challenge was exciting: Novi Beograd went down by three goals against Barceloneta, then recorded the defense (zero out of 10 in numerical superiority for the Spaniards!), closed the regulation time on 8-8 and then on penalties better thanks to the mistakes of Munarriz and Pavillard (12-10). Saturday, at 21, the final on Sky Sport Arena.

THE OTHERS

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In the semifinals for the fifth place, Ferencvaros beat Brescia 9-8 (Merkulov decides 32” from the siren) and Olympiacos wins 14-5 with the Jug. The Lombards will therefore play for seventh place tomorrow at 7pm.

PRO RECCO-VOULIAGMENI 12-8

PRO RECCO: Del Lungo, F. Di Fulvio 2, Zalanki 1, Cinnamon 1, Younger 1 rig, A.Fondelli 2, N. Presciutti, Echenique 3, A. Ivovic, Iocchi Gratta, Loncar, Hallock 2, Negri. All. S. Sukno.VOULIAGMENI: Tzortzatos, Chalyvopoulos, Almyras 1, Kalogeropoulos 1, Troulos 1 pen, Nikolaidis 1, Papasifakis 2 (1 pen), Woodhead 1, Alafragkis 1, Kapotsis, Kourouvanis, Farmer, Andreadis. All. Vujasinovic. REFEREES: Alexandrescu (Rom) and Zwart (Ola). NOTE: sup. no. Pro Recco 11 (7 goals), Vouliagmeni 8 (1). Out. 3 f. Iocchi Gratta at 22’50”.

Wednesday 31 quarters: Barceloneta (Spa)-Jug (Cro) 11-9, Novi Beograd (Srb)-Olympiacos (Gre) 13-11, Vouliagmeni (Gre)-Brescia 11-10, Pro Recco-Ferencvaros (Ung) 8-4.

Thursday 1 semifinals:Novi Beograd-Barceloneta 12-10 pens. (8-8), Pro Recco-Vouliagmeni 12-8.

Saturday 3 finals: 3rd place Barceloneta-Vouliagmeni (19), 1st place Novi Beograd-Pro Recco (21)