Champions League Men: Highlights show and five talking points from day 1 of Quarter Final Stage

1. Recco successfully maintained their perfect record in the Champions League this season, as they are now 7/7 after passing the toughest test possible – an away game in the home of title-holders Ferencvaros.

They did it with flying colours, a four-goal win is a huge feat – Fradi had only three defeats in the previous two seasons and in the running one – 8-10 in Piraeus in 2024 and two shootout defeats, against CNAB in April 2025 and against Brescia in December 2025.

So, Recco managed to hand the first regular-time defeat to the Hungarians after 23 months and the first one in Budapest since May 2023.

The Italians’ approach in the big matches is clear – hard pressing, preventing any easy goals, even at the cost of exclusions as they can kill their opponents’ man-ups with astonishing efficiency. And if this works at the beginning, every denied six-on-five erodes their rivals’ confidence, triggering a domino-effect. You can press even harder, feel the pain, we don’t care about the major fouls as our defence is toppling you.

Just have a look at Recco’s two big wins against Novi Beograd in the Group Stage. In Belgrade, they survived 15 out of 20 man-downs. In Genova, it was 16 out of 22.

In Budapest, they killed 15 out of 18. And what mattered most was the first nine – Recco ruined them all. In the first period, Fradi finished 0 for 5 in man-ups – and the quarter finished 0-5 to Recco in goals.

Back in October, Fradi also had 18 man-ups and scored seven in the Super Cup final in the very same pool, four more than on Wednesday and won 15-14. Recco now beat them 13-9, so they could reduce Fradi’s man-up goals by four – and that made the difference.

2. From Fradi’s perspective, the number of goals they scored (nine) tells the whole story. Fradi have barely struggled in any match in recent years, but whenever their defence didn’t click, the offence always found the way to score as many goals as were required to win the game.

Now, the defence wasn’t as tight, but it was their offence which really crashed (of course, Recco did a lot to force that). In the first twelve minutes, they could net a lonely penalty goal.

Their man-up conversion was already discussed above in point 1, and we may add their 6m shots to the discussion. With cannons like Mandic, Vamos, di Somma, Argyropoulos on the perimeter, plus Manhercz and Fekete, even if there is no open chance created, a forced foul and the following 6m blast is usually a lethal weapon beforehand. Not this time, the snipers finished with a combined 0 for 7 ratio, another reason why FTC looked so hopeless in attack.

At the end, they couldn’t enter the double digits zone as they ended up with nine goals scored. The only time this happened in the last two and a half seasons was that game against Olympiacos, when Fradi were limited to eight goals.

Not surprisingly, that was their only regular-time loss before this one – in 115 matches across all competitions.

As of now, after back-to-back seasons where the Magyars had only one defeat apiece (40-1, 48-1), now they already have two, both against Italian teams in Budapest (Brescia, Recco) and now they are at 23-2.

3. Many thought the Novi Beograd story was over after three consecutive appearances in the Champions League finals between 2022 and 2024, as the Serbian side started losing more and more key players.

Last season they proved they were far from being done as they managed to reach the gold medal match for the third time in four years (and remember, when they finished fourth in 2024, they lost their semis in a shootout to eventual champion FTC).

The first really strong sign came in the game against Olympiacos (in Piraeus), when NBG came up with a fantastic performance and the world started learning the name of star goalkeeper Milan Glusac, who was instrumental in the Serbs 8-5 away win in Greece.

Now NBG may have looked even weaker on paper while Olympiacos showed a lot more composure than in the previous season – still, the outcome was the same, a big win for Novi Beograd.

Three freshy crowned European champions stepped up, Nikola Lukic and Vasilje Martinovic netted seven goals between them and there was Glusac with 12 saves.

As a sharp contrast, Emmanouil Zerdevas had to be substituted after making zero stops from seven shots and Panagiotis Tzortzatos could only add five (they are also the two goalies in the Greek national team).

Despite some heroics from Gergo Zalanki who hit six for Olympiacos, the Greeks left Belgrade empty-handed once more and it won’t get any easier for them against Brescia and Barceloneta.

4. Barceloneta opened their quest with a commanding win in Brescia. In retrospective, it was a great save (and a couple of more which followed it) which put CNAB on the winning track.

Up until 5-6, they couldn’t really fend off the Italians’ surges and Vincenzo Dolce took another clean shot from close-range, but Unai Agurirre made a big save.

The hosts collected the rebound but Aguirre denied them again – and again. Three catches in a span of 24 seconds gave a big boost for the Spaniards, who soon netted three goals in a row, including a double inside the last minute, within 26 seconds, and the home side could never recover after falling 5-9 behind before half-time.

At the end, Aguirre’s 12 saves were decisive, as it propelled CNAB to an 8-13 lead before they conceded three late goals in the last three minutes.

5. It was interesting to follow the matches parallel in Budapest and in Zagreb in Group B. Recco led 0-5 in Budapest, against Fradi, while Mladost also stormed to a 5-0 lead in their famous pool against Waspo Hannover. Although that scoreline was less surprising.

The Croats have always been strong at home, with their QF Stage berth secured in their own pool after Olympiacos, Radnicki and Vasas all fell there in the Group Stage.

And Mladost managed the game well once they took that big lead, in fact they won by four, just like Recco, and their victory was never in danger either.

It was a great team effort from the Croats as 10 field players scored the 12 goals – and their young reserve goalie Mauro Cubranic also enjoyed a huge night with 14 stops for a 63.6 save percentage.

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Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics

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