Day 9, Group B – AN Brescia (ITA) v Spandau 04 Berlin (GER) 14-10
Spandau were fresh from the big stunner in the previous round as they had beaten Jug in Dubrovnik – as a contrast, Brescia had to heal some deep wounds after bowing out in the semis of the Italian Cup, being upset by Ortigia.
Well, the Italians looked like a wounded lion – which is the most dangerous of all. They were overwhelming right from the beginning, Edoardo di Somma and Konstantin Kharkov netted two apiece to take a 4-1 lead in eight minutes. Spandau pulled two back once falling 5-1 behind but could never reduce the gap smaller than three goals in the first half. Di Somma added two more in 30 seconds to kick off the second half in style for a 9-4 lead and that put the game in bed.
The Italians netted six in this quarter, Spandau could add three – and they repeated that again in the fourth, while Brescia switched back gears and scored only once in the last period. While the hosts’ win was never in danger, it was somewhat telling that after conceding 13 against Marseille last time, now Brescia let another rival reach double digits – that wasn’t really the case in the first half of the season when visiting teams were held on 4-6 goals.
By stats – Brescia conceded 14 goals in its first three home matches, now 23 in the last two (coach Bovo wasn’t too happy with the defence at the end), still, what really counts that they bagged three points in all five encounters and kept their first place in the group.
How they saw it
Alessandro Bovo, coach, Brescia
“I’m happy with our reaction after we had lost a very important match in our national cup. I’m also happy with the way we played in attack, but definitely less happy with our defence.”
Athanasios Kechagias, coach, Spandau
“Brescia was better, they deserved to win this game. We started bad and then we tried to get back into the game, but every time we had a little chance, we conceded easy goals.”
