Day 12, Group B – Astralpool Sabadell (ESP) v AN Brescia (ITA) 10-14
After a quick exchange of goals, a lengthy and scoreless phase commenced which included an Italian possession with three straight saves from Sabadell goalie Edu Lorrio. He came up with two more stops, one in a man-down, but with three seconds to go he ran out of miracles as Edoardo di Somma sent the ball behind him for 1-2.
Brescia’s defence worked brilliantly in the second period as well, the hosts couldn’t even force exclusions, let alone goals and it was obvious that the group leaders would build on that after a while. It happened soon, two action goals put Brescia 1-4 ahead, and a bit later they went 1-6 up, a penalty and Jacopo Alesiani’s counter-attack goal did the damage. The Italians could almost hold Sabadell on a single goal in the first half, but Francisco Valera broke the ice 51 seconds from time, from a 6 on 5, to halt his team’s almost 12-minute-long silence. Still, Stefano Luongo’s 6m blast reset the five-goal difference for halftime.
Sabadell had a better spell in the third, managed to score three goals and come back to 5-8 but Brescia’s response was brutal – a 0-3 rush with two killed man-down and that put the game into bed at 5-11. The last quarter brought seven hits, four for the hosts to entertain the crowd, but Brescia’s win was never in danger. Di Somma finished the game with 5 goals – Lorrio posted 13 saves but not even this was enough to keep the encounter in balance.
Since Novi Beograd couldn’t win in Dubrovnik, the Italians’ top position looks almost certain, while Sabadell is now out of the contest as even two more wins wouldn’t be enough for them – the results comparisons wouldn’t favour them in case of a potential two- or three-way tie.
How they saw it
Quim Colet, coach, Sabadell
“The most important for us is to be competitive in the games. Today we played with the best team of the group, a strong and physical team and we saw that this time it was not possible to compete with them on the same level as we did in the previous matches against other rivals. Still, we are getting ready for the Spandau game and the home playoffs.”
Alessandro Bovo, coach, Brescia
“I’m very happy with our performance. We started very well, dictated the pace in the first part of the match, took a big lead. It was a great win.”
