Highlights Here are the highlights of the Opening Press Conference, held in Belgrade.
Kyriakos Giannopoulos, LEN Vice-President, Bureau Liaison for Water Polo “We are happy to be here in Belgrade. On behalf of LEN and our President Antonio Silva, I’d like to welcome all participating teams and thank for their efforts in this season. I’m sure we will enjoy a great tournament in the next three days. Let me thank for the organisers and all partners for their support which made it possible to have this great event here in Belgrade.”
Dejan Perisic, Secretary, LEN Technical Water Polo Committee
“First of all, I’d like to congratulate for all teams present for making the Final Eight. LEN and the water polo family is really grateful for the organisers, for the local municipality and for all who offered its support to stage this event here in Belgrade. I’m sure we will enjoy a great tournament with great matches as we have the best players and the best clubs here.”
Marco Birri, LEN Operational Manager
“This is the coronation of the season as we have a quality field here. Six of the eight teams already won European trophies and not only just once but multiple times. Also, seven of the eight participating clubs just won its respective national championship – only Brescia did not, but because lost to the other Italian participant, Recco – it’s also a demonstration that we have the best sides here. And they represent
quality as seven of them were here last year as well. We have more TV interest than a year ago, we have new broadcasters and we expect great numbers for our live streaming.”
14.30 AN Brescia (ITA) v Waspo 98 Hannover (GER)
Edvin Calderara, assistant coach, Brescia
“OK, we are aware that Brescia is the only team which did not arrive here as the national champion, but we still expect to win this tournament. At the same time, we also know that even our first game will already be challenging against Hannover. But we are motivated to make the semi-final as we did last year.”
Djordje Lazic, player, Brescia
“We are aware that our quarter-final is a hard game and I’m sure it’s going to be a great match. On paper, we are the favourites, but we need to stay calm and focused.”
Karsten Seehafer, coach, Hannover
“We are in celebratory mood after winning the German championship and we also know that we are the underdogs here but don’t forget, in a single game anything can happen. We finished two days earlier than Brescia, so we had more time to recover, and we could also watch the Italian league final and analysed our rival. I think we know what we want to do, then let’s see what happens tomorrow.”
Federica Muccichini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto DBM/LEN Reserved Rights
16.30 Pro Recco (ITA) v Zodiac Atletic Barceloneta (ESP)
Sandro Sukno, coach, Recco
“We are not tired after this hard series of finals with Brescia. As a coach I should say that I’m happy to have such challenging series of games. After the tense final, now we are waiting this tournament. It’s going to be a really hard match against Barceloneta, I would say that had the best spring in Europe among the teams. At this phase of the season, a coach can only help to its team and cannot do miracles.”
Aleksandar Ivovic, player, Recco
“We had a very difficult series of games against Brescia, but we are ready. For us, it’s a good sign to start with Barceloneta. Whenever we played against them, we can all remember we had a good ending. Seven years ago, we met them on the first day, beat them, won the tournament. Last year we met in the semis, beat them, won the tournament. This is the coronation of the season and I think we can have an even bigger success than last year as we won the domestic league, and we can win this trophy again. To achieve that, we need to play with cold head and concentrated, this is the only way to be successful and win this tournament.”
Elvis Fatovic, coach, Barcelona
“It is true we had some problems during the season, mostly in the pandemic phase when other teams struggled too. Later on, we had a good series of games, and you can also remember that last year the team also had some fine matches here. We had a very difficult group, great teams couldn’t make it to
the Final Eight, so we are happy to be back. As for our quarter-final, we respect Recco, but we are also confident.”
Dani Lopez, player, Barceloneta
“Now we are like underdogs, and I’d say that our big goal to be here has already been achieved. We just wish to enjoy being here and do our best. If we really do, we can cause problems to Recco, I guess.”
Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto DBM/LEN Reserved Rights
18.30 Olympique Marseille (FRA) v Novi Beograd (SRB)
Milos Scepanovic, coach, Marseille
“If you say Marseille is unique because of the great number of players from this region, I’d say that almost every team has players from here. I hope that the team will reach its best level here and we can play the same water polo we have been able to do in this season.”
Igor Kovacevic, player, Marseille
“I think we’ve matured a lot since last year. Our team is a good mix of French and foreign players and it’s great to be here in New Belgrade. This tournament is going to be more interesting and challenging now as spectators can finally come in.”
Igor Milanovic, coach, Novi Beograd
“Here all the matches will be difficult. We are ready and self-confident as we play without any pressure. We had pressure in the domestic championship and in the Regional League where the expectations were high and clear. Here we don’t have the same so we are full of optimism and I’m sure we will have success. It’s already one that the pool will be full of fans as I know.”
Dusan Mandic, player, Novi Beograd
“I put the last season behind me, and we are looking into the future. We go step by step and as our coach said we play without pressure. We had a nice result in the Serbian league and now we face Marseille. We know their strength and we are aware what their team is capable of, so we need to bring our very best to the pool.”
Federica Muccichini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto DBM/LEN Reserved Rights
20.30 FTC-Telekom Budapest (HUN) v Jug Adriatic Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO)
Zsolt Varga, coach, Ferencvaros
“First of all, we are glad to be here, this season has been extremely hard for us, for months we played with one centre-forward, health issues hit key players before important matches. In a season, for which we changed five core players, our goal was building the team and I think despite all the setbacks we managed to reach a good level. The team is getting ready for this tournament, the game against Jug will be hard, they were in the same shoe, kind of reshaping their team, they had ups and downs but recently played better and better and they were the only ones who could beat Recco.”
Denes Varga, player, Ferencvaros
“We came here with a great satisfaction based on the results already achieved this season. Still, now we have a chance to put a crown on our run. We are aware of the strengths of Jug, and we focus solely on that game and look no further. This time we have no pressure on us, so we belong to this circle here in this company, we just want to enjoy the event. And at last, it’s great to have the spectators back – and it’s even better that we can play in front of spectators.”
No quotes from Jug as they haven’t arrived to Belgrade yet.
Quarter-finals, 2 June
14.30 AN Brescia (ITA) v Waspo 98 Hannover (GER)
16.30 Pro Recco (ITA) v Zodiac Atletic Barceloneta (ESP)
18.30 CN Marseille (FRA) v Novi Beograd (SRB)
20.30 FTC-Telekom Budapest (HUN) v Jug Adriatic Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO)
Semi-finals, 3 June
14.30 Crossover for 5-8th places
16.30 Crossover for 5-8th places
18.30 Semi-final: Brescia/Hannover v Marseille/Novi B.
20.30 Semi-final: Recco/Barceloneta v FTC/Jug
Final Round, 4 June
12.00 For the 7-8th place
14.00 For the 5-6th place
17.00 Bronze medal match
19.30 Champions League Final
