Group A: Steaua Bucharest (ROU) v AN Brescia (ITA) 8-17
Although Brescia initially took the lead, the Romanians responded well by equalizing twice. They even went ahead 3-2 late in the first period, but Jacopo Alesiani leveled the score just 9 seconds before the end, resulting in a surprising 3-3 tie after eight minutes.
However, the Italians stepped up their game in the next quarter, scoring two goals in just 22 seconds. Max Irving’s man-up show was followed by Alesiani’s counter, and within a minute, Irving buried a penalty shot as well, making it 3-6. The hosts lost ground, they were unable to break Brescia’s defence while Alesiani hit another one from a counter.
Djorde Lazic offered another glimpse of his magic while scoring a brilliant one from the centre. This completed Brescia’s decisive run. They staged a 0-5 rout in the second period and that killed the party.
Steaua managed to halt Brescia’s surge at 3-9 and scored after 11:31 minutes. However, the Italians continued to dominate in the action-packed third period, adding five more goals and expanding their lead to seven goals, making it 13-6 at the last break. The Italians finished with 17 goals in total, with Mario del Basso netting four to secure his team’s first win in the group stage this season.
Comments from the coaches
Bogdan Rath, coach, Steaua
No quote in English
Sandro Bovo, coach, Brescia
“I’m happy with the team’s performance, even at the beginning we played well but Steaua also did a good job. We tried to play with a high speed from the beginning and it started to work in our favour from the second period. We did well in defence, we were aggressive, and it was a good game.”
