Italian sides resit in Euro Cup semis

Both Posillipo and Acquachiara will have another shot at the Euro Cup finals. For the second straight year both Naples based sides reached the semifinals of the 2nd tier European club tournament but now try to erase the dissapointing memories of last year where Mladost Zagreb and Spartak Volgograd prevented an all-Italian finals clash by upsetting the slight favourites in the semis. On Wednesday both teams will start off a new try against different opponents. Posillipo travels to Bucharest taking on Romanian top team Steaua Bucharest who are keen to highlighting their successful run by reaching the final. The Romanians played a tough two-game quarterfinals battle but managed to eliminate German outsiders Waspo Hannover after a critical 9-7 home win in leg 1. Posillipo meanwhile was the only team to have won the series after losing game 1. Things looked good for Russian opponents Sintez Kazan who triumphed 9-6 at home but were not enough prepared for what was awaiting them in Naples in leg 2. Here Posillipo stormed back and thanks to a convincing 12-7 victory still won the series.
The second semifinal will start off in Naples as Acquachiara hosts Croatian side Mornar BS. The Croatians are coming off a tense quarterfinal battle with fellow Italians of Savona who fell in Split, Croatia 10-5 in leg 1 but were close to an upset at home in game 2 where Mornar narrowly held on to reach the semis (8-4 loss). Acquachiara meanwhile used a solid but also impressive 13-7 home win in leg 1 of their quarterfinals, facing French side Olympic Nice, to quickly decide things as the 10-10 draw in leg 2 was more than enough to reach the semis.


Leg 1

Wednesday, 11 February

18.00: Steaua Bucharest (ROU) vs. C.N. Posillipo (ITA)
20.30: Carpisa Yamamay Acquachiara (ITA) vs. Mornar BS (CRO)

Leg 2

Wednesday, 4 March