First Round of Euro League

Headed off to Athens to meet up with the Olympiacos team (Greece) to have a week of hard training before flying out to Hungary. Here in Hungary we spent some time going over tactics and having training games. Then it was off to Eger for the first round of Euro League.

Our first game was very important, as in order to qualify for the quarterfinals you have to win a minimum of 2 games out of the 3 games. First up was SKIF Izmailovo (Russia) the game started out reasonably close. We were able to pull away a little in the third and fourth quarter, but our mistakes kept them in the game. In the end we were able to hold them out with a 3 goal win.

Our next game was always going to be a tough one, as NGM Firenze (Italy) had also won their first game. Therefore who ever won this game was going to qualify for the next round. Our game went goal for goal for three quarters. We were able to pull away in the forth quarter to a 7-4 lead with 5 minutes to go. However, some silly mistakes and poor defence allow them to score 4 goals and take the game. This game was very disappointing as we made a lot of errors and meant that we had to win against the home team in front of their crowd.

Our third and final game vs Egri Vizilabda (Hungary) was very stressful as both teams were in the same position (1 loss, 1 win) and had to win in order to proceed to the next round. We started well with defending a number of extra men in the first few minutes and had some very strong attack. However it wasn’t until the final quarter where we pulled away and sealed the win and our ticket to the quarterfinals.

Final standings:

1.     NGM Firenze 6 pts

2.     Olympiacos SFP 6pts

3.     Egri Vizilabda 3pts

4.     SKIF Izmailovo 3pts

All Qualification Round results