Day 11, Group A – Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) v Jadran Split (CRO) 7-12
Last year they met on Day 13, by the time Jadran lost their chances to make the cut for the F8 and it ended it an embarrassing 12-11 defeat. Something similar happened to Radnicki two weeks ago, they went down even more spectacularly. Since Jadran has not been counted out yet, the Croats did a lot better this time.
Jerko Marinic-Kragic opened the scoring after 20 seconds, then Rino Buric netted one from the centre, and even though Dinamo could also get on board after four minutes, a late goal gave Jadran a 2-4 lead after eight minutes. For a while, goals didn’t come in the second, the Croats killed three man-downs and missed a penalty, still, this hard battle took its toll more on the Georgians first. They couldn’t prevent the Butic-Bukic duo from netting action goals in a span of 36 seconds, and even though Stefan Pjesivac pulled one back from the centre, Marinic-Kragic scored another one from action soon and after killing two more man-downs, the Croats added one more 8 seconds before the break for 3-8, so practically they decided the match.
The “BUBUBU” department (Butic, Bukic, Buric) went on adding more goals in the third to expand the gap to six goals, and it was even seven in the fourth as Marinic-Kragic hit his third, before the hosts pulled back to at the end.
How they saw it
Dejan Stevanovic, coach, Dinamo
“Jadran were better in all parts of the game, they knew what they had come for and did not leave any chance for us as they continue to fight for the Final Eight. Jadran have a great team with great individuals and that was shown in this match. We were too nearvous before this game, I need to resolve that, we shouldn’t have mistakes like the ones we had, not making the best selection of shots and passes and not keeping the tactics and discipline. We cannot allow that emotions or pressure should drive us.”
Jurej Mateja, coach, Jadran
“We are very satisfied with this result as Dinamo has been playing great water polo in recent weeks. Since we didn’t win against Vouliagmeni, our spot in the Final Eight does not depend on our results in the first place but we try do our best to win every game we play.”
