Courtesy: LEN
The first leg of the men’s Euro Cup final saw no winner – Savona and Vasas had to settle for an 8-8 tie after a thrilling, extremely hard battle with 33 major fouls. The Italians were in the lead for most of the time, but the Hungarians came back from two goals down in the last period.
Men’s Euro Cup Final, 1st leg: RN Savona (ITA) v A Hid-VasasPlaket (HUN) 8-8 Second leg: 29 April
Savona returned to a European final after eleven years while Vasas’ last attempt to clinch a trophy dates back to 2003, so both sides approached the encounters with high expectations.
After an early exchange of goals, the Italians jumped to a 3-1 lead, but Vasas climbed back, despite missing a 6 on 4, then a penalty late in the opening period. However, Savona had another fine spell, regained the two-goal advantage while shutting out their rivals for almost five minutes. After missing man-ups, the Hungarians stepped up shortly before the middle break and scored two goals in extra in 69 seconds to tie the clash by halftime at 5-5.
The pattern remained the same in the third, Savona pushed hard, defended well, the Magyars hit the post from a second penalty and Bogdan Durdic’s action goal expanded the gap to two once more. It could have been three, but the home side missed their next-man-up, and even though Vasas wasted a 6 on 4, veteran Drasko Brugljan finally halted their scoreless run 17 seconds from time.
Still, with 5:44 to go, Savona led by two for the fourth time in the game, but Randelovic hit back in 30 seconds for 8-7. An extremely tough and demanding battle ensued, three minutes gone without a goal, then the Hungarians gained a 6 on 5 and Gabor Lorinc put it away for 8-8 after a time-out. The hosts also had the chance, an extra after a time-out with 59 seconds remaining, but they missed it, and Vasas could even have won it but seven seconds were too few to set up their very last man-up well.
They were the happier team after all, despite missing two penalties and two 6 on 4s, they managed to save the game to a tie with eight man-up goals – Savona’s super-aggressive defending didn’t leave them too many chances to score on equal strength. At the end this style took its toll, defending in 16 man-downs burnt the Italians’ energies, the visitors could always come back at the end of each period. In the fourth they shut them out for the last six minutes and in two weeks-time they could go for the cup in their home pool in Budapest.
