Champions League Men: Highlights show and five talking points from day 2 & 3 of Quarterfinal Stage

1. Barceloneta were arguably the biggest winners in the third round of the Champions League Quarterfinal Stage. Apart from blowing away arch-rivals Olympiacos at home, Brescia’s win over Novi Beograd set up the best possible scenario for the Spaniards.

While they landed their third straight win, the other three teams all stand with three points, securing a six-point advantage for CNAB and paving their way to Malta.

In fact, the Catalans did a lot to achieve that. Beating NBG and Olympiacos within a week was a tremendous feat, even if both victories came at home.

These matches were a true testament to CNAB’s offensive power, as they hit 19 against the Serbs and even reached the 20-goal barrier against the Greeks.

Though their defence looked a bit shaky, especially in the game against Novi, which stood at 16-16 before a great 3-0 rush in the last minutes decided the outcome.

Their Hungarian winger Vince Vigvari was on fire, scoring three of the last four goals on Day 2 and hitting a career-high seven Champions League goals in the big match with Olympiacos.

In fact, CNAB’s only loss this season across all competitions came on Day 2 of the initial Group Stage, when they fell to Marseille at home – since then, they have only recorded wins.

2. The other team with a perfect record in the Quarterfinal Stage so far is Pro Recco, not surprisingly. Though Ferencvaros beat them in the Super Cup Final in early October, Recco have recorded only wins ever since.

The Italian giants are now 31-0 across all competitions, including a 9/9 run in the Champions League. In the meantime, they took revenge on Fradi on the opening day of the Quarterfinal Stage, though the last two tests, in seemingly less challenging matches, proved a bit harder to tick off.

While Recco were flying high in the first half at home against Mladost, in the end they won by three – though the win had never been in danger.

In Hannover, their defence failed to click in the first half, yet they still managed to lead 8-10 against Waspo. Then they geared up to secure all three points and are now well set to return to Malta after being absent last year, with two home games in hand in the second half of this stage.

3. The third team that took a huge step in this rare two-rounds-in-a-week phase of the Champions League was Ferencvaros. While this had been a goes-without-saying scenario in the previous two seasons, this time their home loss to Recco put them under some pressure, especially as they faced back-to-back away matches in the following rounds.

They passed this test with flying colours, worthy of the title-holders. Both in Hannover and in Zagreb, Fradi did not look vulnerable at any stage of the matches.

While this was expected in Waspo’s home, their next trip to Zagreb, where Mladost had been waiting for the chance to hunt them down in their fearsome home pool, turned out to be another masterpiece.

The Croats had a brilliant unbeaten home run in the Champions League, winning 6/6 before FTC’s appearance, but it was quickly put under threat as Fradi stormed to a 0-4 lead and were 4-10 up by half-time.

As their coach Balazs Nyeki said, facing man-down situations on a constant basis was something they had been prepared for; still, it drained a lot of their energy in the first half, which somewhat explained why they conceded six goals in the third.

Still, the fourth saw another power demonstration as they shut out Mladost in the last quarter, not only to secure three crucial points but also to win by five goals (still without the injured Dusan Mandic) – a strong message to the others that the Magyars are back at the top of their game.

4. Brescia have always been famous for delivering an upset or two, and they just did it again. After clinching a shootout win over FTC in Budapest last December in the Group Stage, they now brought down Novi Beograd, and the Italians sit in the middle of a three-way tie with Olympiacos and the Serbs, very much in the contest for a Final Four berth.

NBG, who had kicked off their Quarterfinal Stage campaign with a great win over Olympiacos, were edged out both in Barceloneta and in Brescia.

Wonder-goalie Milan Glusac seemed to have run out of miracles that had been instrumental in Serbia’s European Championships gold in January (and in NBG ultimately reaching the Champions League final last season).

The Serbs were on equal terms with CNAB on Day 2, only to fade in the last three minutes after 16-16, and they produced a great comeback in Brescia after falling behind by five goals deep into the third, then by four early in the fourth – but they left the pool empty-handed once more. Their best finisher, Milos Cuk, was 0 for 5 in six-on-five, something this team couldn’t really counterbalance.

In contrast, Brescia came up with another great team effort, killing 14 of the 20 man-downs, and they can approach the World Cup break (and Easter) with a fact they can be extremely proud of – they have now beaten both Champions League finalists from last season.

5. Despite minor hiccups, Olympiacos delivered convincing performances in the Group Stage and finished top of a tough group featuring Mladost, Radnicki and Vasas, with just one loss.

However, question marks have begun to pop up once more, just like last season. Losing in Belgrade and in Barceloneta is something that can happen to any team, but for Olympiacos, failing to gain anything from those two matches is hard to accept.

Even harder was to see how the Greeks were dismantled by Barceloneta on Day 3, even without their captain Konstantinos Genidounias, who had been sidelined for this game.

Conceding 20 goals in a Champions League match is not the level of Olympiacos – being beaten by seven is also a bitter pill to swallow.

Waspo’s 13-21 home defeat to FTC remains the biggest losing margin so far in this season’s Quarterfinal Stage, followed by the Greeks’ 20-13 away loss to CNAB.

What perhaps makes this even more painful is that Elvis Fatovic led the Greeks in this match, having been in charge of the opposite bench in the previous four seasons, yet his deep knowledge of CNAB’s game and abilities couldn’t prevent the heavy defeat.

The Greeks missed the Final Four last year; now they really need to regroup in order to avoid back-to-back failures.

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Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics

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