The opening round of the Champions League preliminary stage got underway in Herceg Novi where Jadran celebrated its return to Europe's elite stage by pushing Primorje to a late and hard-fought 9-11 win. Decisive and unanswered goals by top scorer Miho Boskovic (pictured, 4 goals) and Nikola Dedovic in the final two minutes gave the last year's finalists a two-goal triumph to kick things off in group A. Up until that points though the fans in Herceg Novi could witness a close and nice match-up, well earned by the home side who hung on against the favourite visitors. Primorje took two-goal leads and even led 4-7 early in the third period. The Vladimir Gojkovic coached side showed resillience and kept coming back before getting pushed back to trailing 2 goals. That pattern continued until the last two minutes. After Stefan Vidovic had tied the game at 9-9, Primorje's final answer was too much for the Montenegrins.
In group B defending champions Pro Recco experienced an easy start to their campaign by rolling past Galatasaray 15-4. The Turkish champions lacks rhythm, with the domestic season yet to get started, and relied too heavily on their experienced foreigners centre forwards Slobodan Nikic, Nikola Vukcevic and shooter Mladjan Janovic (3 goals) as well as fellow Montenegrin driver Vjekoslav Paskovic. The Italian defence however proved solid and got Galatasaray in trouble right from the start. On the breakaway Recco quickly started to walk away while the man-ups, drawn by centre forward Dusko Pijetlovic and Matteo Aicardi, proved successful as well causing the Turkish visitors, and their head coach Igor Milanovic, a tough night in Sori. The trio of Francesco di Fulvio, Andrija Prlainovic and Filip Filipovic led all scorers with 3 each. As mentioned Janovic scored 3 of Galatasaray's 4 goals.
For ZF-Eger and Olympiacos the Champions League prelims started with a draw. A seemingly fair result for a close and tense match-up. It was Spanish left-hander Blai Mallarach who saved the day for Olympiacos scoring the equaliser with just ten seconds remaining in the match. It erased a close lead for the Hungarian home team who had trailed most of the match but on the right moment, the final period, all of a sudden turned the score around and led 6-5 and 7-6 in the first half of the last term. After veteran Jesse Smith had tied the Greek 7-7 with over two minutes remaining Eger once more got in front as centre forward and top scorer Balazs Harai netted his 3rd with just 1.27 on the clock. A big blow but just not big enough to grab the win. Olympiacos struck in the final seconds of the game following an exclusion for Balazs Erdelyi and subsequent timeout that resulted in the Mallarach goal as the teams shared the points in group A on opening night.
First Final Six winners Barceloneta did managed to start with a win. The Spanish champions topped German's best Spandau 9-7 at home Wednesday. Almost literally carried by one of the team's aquisitions this summer, Serbian shooter Strahinja Rasovic. The winger scored 5 goals including a pair of big ones in the final period after Spandau smelled blood in the third quarter in which they crawled back to 5-4 and 6-5 deficits before Rasovic, in the final term, got Barceloneta to lead by two goals on two ocassions. His goals for the 7-5 and 8-6 score proved vital in secured the victory as the comeback attempt by the German visitors seemed broken and so with Albert Español netting his only shot of the game at 1.28 remaining, the win for the home team was secured. The last hit, by Spandau's Spencer Hamby was just to set the final score at 9-7. But Barceloneta got away with a valuable win in the highly competitive group A.
Szolnok followed the example of Pro Recco in group B by starting with victory. In Belgrade a solid first-half showing paved the way to a 9-14 win. The Hungarian champion, carried by centre forward Tamas Mezei and fellow lefty, Marton Vamos, who combined for 7 goals in the win, established a four-goal advantage halfway and were never endangered in the remainder, despite Partizan scoring five more goals in the third and fourth session. And so with the trio of Serbian world champions, and former Partizan players remaining scoreless in their return to the Banjica pool in Belgrade, Szolnok still managed to walk away with a seemingly comfortable victory.
Jug closed out the group of winners on day 1 of the prelims as they managed to hold off a tough OSC-side in Budapest. A valuable win, the Croats established tight leads and held on to it partly because of their superior physique. The Hungarians, missing the presence of a strong centre forward like absent Joe Kayes, got their goals through shooters Bence Batori and Ferenc Salamon and driver Gabor Kovacs but in the end just fell short on what could have been a welcome win at home in the tough group B. Maro Jokovic, centre forward Josip Vrlic and driver Felipe Perrone led Jug scoring 2 goals each.
Matchday 2 of the preliminary phase is scheduled for Wednesday 11 November.
Champions League 2015-2016
Preliminary phase
Wednesday, 28 October - Round 1
Group A
Jadran Herceg Novi (MNE) vs. Primorje EB Rijeka (CRO) 9-11 (2-3, 2-2, 2-2, 3-4)
In group B defending champions Pro Recco experienced an easy start to their campaign by rolling past Galatasaray 15-4. The Turkish champions lacks rhythm, with the domestic season yet to get started, and relied too heavily on their experienced foreigners centre forwards Slobodan Nikic, Nikola Vukcevic and shooter Mladjan Janovic (3 goals) as well as fellow Montenegrin driver Vjekoslav Paskovic. The Italian defence however proved solid and got Galatasaray in trouble right from the start. On the breakaway Recco quickly started to walk away while the man-ups, drawn by centre forward Dusko Pijetlovic and Matteo Aicardi, proved successful as well causing the Turkish visitors, and their head coach Igor Milanovic, a tough night in Sori. The trio of Francesco di Fulvio, Andrija Prlainovic and Filip Filipovic led all scorers with 3 each. As mentioned Janovic scored 3 of Galatasaray's 4 goals.
For ZF-Eger and Olympiacos the Champions League prelims started with a draw. A seemingly fair result for a close and tense match-up. It was Spanish left-hander Blai Mallarach who saved the day for Olympiacos scoring the equaliser with just ten seconds remaining in the match. It erased a close lead for the Hungarian home team who had trailed most of the match but on the right moment, the final period, all of a sudden turned the score around and led 6-5 and 7-6 in the first half of the last term. After veteran Jesse Smith had tied the Greek 7-7 with over two minutes remaining Eger once more got in front as centre forward and top scorer Balazs Harai netted his 3rd with just 1.27 on the clock. A big blow but just not big enough to grab the win. Olympiacos struck in the final seconds of the game following an exclusion for Balazs Erdelyi and subsequent timeout that resulted in the Mallarach goal as the teams shared the points in group A on opening night.
First Final Six winners Barceloneta did managed to start with a win. The Spanish champions topped German's best Spandau 9-7 at home Wednesday. Almost literally carried by one of the team's aquisitions this summer, Serbian shooter Strahinja Rasovic. The winger scored 5 goals including a pair of big ones in the final period after Spandau smelled blood in the third quarter in which they crawled back to 5-4 and 6-5 deficits before Rasovic, in the final term, got Barceloneta to lead by two goals on two ocassions. His goals for the 7-5 and 8-6 score proved vital in secured the victory as the comeback attempt by the German visitors seemed broken and so with Albert Español netting his only shot of the game at 1.28 remaining, the win for the home team was secured. The last hit, by Spandau's Spencer Hamby was just to set the final score at 9-7. But Barceloneta got away with a valuable win in the highly competitive group A.
Szolnok followed the example of Pro Recco in group B by starting with victory. In Belgrade a solid first-half showing paved the way to a 9-14 win. The Hungarian champion, carried by centre forward Tamas Mezei and fellow lefty, Marton Vamos, who combined for 7 goals in the win, established a four-goal advantage halfway and were never endangered in the remainder, despite Partizan scoring five more goals in the third and fourth session. And so with the trio of Serbian world champions, and former Partizan players remaining scoreless in their return to the Banjica pool in Belgrade, Szolnok still managed to walk away with a seemingly comfortable victory.
Jug closed out the group of winners on day 1 of the prelims as they managed to hold off a tough OSC-side in Budapest. A valuable win, the Croats established tight leads and held on to it partly because of their superior physique. The Hungarians, missing the presence of a strong centre forward like absent Joe Kayes, got their goals through shooters Bence Batori and Ferenc Salamon and driver Gabor Kovacs but in the end just fell short on what could have been a welcome win at home in the tough group B. Maro Jokovic, centre forward Josip Vrlic and driver Felipe Perrone led Jug scoring 2 goals each.
Matchday 2 of the preliminary phase is scheduled for Wednesday 11 November.
Champions League 2015-2016
Preliminary phase
Wednesday, 28 October - Round 1
Group A
Jadran Herceg Novi (MNE) vs. Primorje EB Rijeka (CRO) 9-11 (2-3, 2-2, 2-2, 3-4)
Jadran scorers: Vlado Popadic 2, Nikola Janovic 2, Zeljko Kovacic, Stefan Vidovic, Bojan Banicevic, Miroslav Randjic, Stefan Pjesivac.
Primorje scorers: Miho Boskovic 4, Nikola Dedovic 2, Gonzalo Echenique 2, Mislav Vrlic, Ante Vukicevic, Andjelo Setka.
ZF-Eger (HUN) vs. Olympiacos Piraeus (GRE) 8-8 (1-1, 1-3, 3-1, 3-3)
Eger scorers: Balazs Harai 3, Marton Szivos 2, Boris Vapenski 2, Milos Cuk.
Olympiacos scorers: Ioannis Fountoulis 2, Konstantinos Mourikis 2, Emmanouil Mylonakis, Jesse Smith, Christodoulos Kolomvos, Blai Mallarach.
CN Atletic-Barceloneta (ESP) vs. Wasserfreunde Spandau Berlin (GER) 9-7 (2-1, 3-2, 1-2, 3-2)
Barceloneta scorers: Strahinja Rasovic 5, Marc Minguell 2, Albert Español, Viktor Rasovic.
Spandau scorers: Mateo Cuk 2, Tobias Preuss 2, Mehdi Marzouki, Marko Stamm, Spencer Hamby.
Group B
Pro Recco (ITA) vs. Galatasaray Istanbul (TUR) 15-4 (4-0, 6-2, 3-0, 2-2)
Pro Recco scorers: Francesco di Fulvio 3, Andrija Prlainovic 3, Filip Filipovic 3, Dusko Pijetlovic 2, Sandro Sukno 2, Michaël Bodegas, Aleksandar Ivovic.
Galatasaray scorers: Mladjan Janovic 3, Slobodan Nikic.
Partizan Raiffeisen Belgrade (SRB) vs. Szolnoki VSK (HUN) 9-14 (2-4, 2-4, 3-5, 2-1)
Partizan scorers: Gavril Subotic 4, Marko Manojlovic, Drasko Gogov, Nikola Jaksic, Filip Radojevic, Mateja Asanovic.
Szolnok scorers: Marton Vamos 4, Tamas Mezei 3, Daniel Varga 2, Denes Varga 2, Bence Fulöp, Aaron Younger, Gabor Kis.
OSC (HUN) vs. Jug CO Dubrovnik (CRO) 7-9 (2-2, 1-2, 3-3, 1-2)
OSC scorers: Bence Batori 2, Gabor Kovacs 2, Adam Decker, Ferenc Salamon, Drasko Brguljan.
Jug scorers: Maro Jokovic 2, Josip Vrlic 2, Felipe Perrone 2, Marko Macan, Hrvoje Benic, Paulo Obradovic.
