Title-holders FTC-Telekom and last season’s Final Four participant Novi Beograd are on their way to the Quarter-Final Round after fine home wins in the third round of the Group Stage in the Champions League. Radnicki survived a real scare in Tbilisi while Steaua couldn’t hold onto the two-goal lead in the last minute once more and this time they lost the shootout to fellow Romanian side Oradea.

Group A

Novi Beograd (SRB) v Waspo 98 Hannover (GER) 10-8, Steaua Bucharest (ROU) v CSM Oradea (ROU) 13-13, pen: 7-8

Standings: 1. Novi Beograd 9, 2. Oradea 5, 3. Steaua 3, 4. Hannover 1

In Belgrade, it all began in the expected way as the Serbs stormed to a 5-2 lead in the first period. But it continued very differently – after hitting five in eight minutes, NBG’s offence simply stopped working and they could only add a lonely goal in the following two quarters. The Germans fought hard as they do at any time and managed to pull two back before halftime, killing two man-downs before the middle break. They had more possession to get even but couldn’t really create great chances as Vasilje Martinovic finally broke the ice for NBG after 9:37 minutes for 6-4. But that was it, the Serbs went on wasting their 6 on 5s – they couldn’t make any of the 7 they earned in these periods which also credited the Waspo defenders for their efforts.

Martinovic kicked off the fourth with another action goal after 25 seconds and soon Marko Dimitrijevic managed to score from a man-up for 8-5. It was still 9-6 for NBG but they still faced some heated moments after Mark Gansen hit two in a minute for 9-8 with 1:25 to go. But the hosts kept their calm, forced a man-up and Dimitrios Skoumpakis netted it 48 seconds from time to secure another win for NBG.

The Romanian derby produced another thriller in the Otopeni Pool where the fans witnessed another penalty shootout. Two weeks ago, Steaua won against Hannover in the penalties, now they could keep only one point at home. What was common: they had a two-goal lead in hand late in the fourth but were unable to hold onto it till the end.

It was a game of twists and turns, the hosts jumped to a 3-1 lead but Oradea caught a high wave and after 4-3 they staged a 0-3 surge, the last came in the very last second by David Belenyesi which gave Oradea a 4-6 lead.

Next came Steaua’s storm, after a quick exchange of goals it was the hosts’ turn to come up with a 4-0 run and they maintained that gap till the last break. The fourth was devoted to madness. In 1:45 minutes, the visitors hit three in a row to take over the lead at 10-11 – only to watch Steaua do the same, a 3-0 run, with two killed man-down and the hosts were 13-11 up with 3:13 to go. With 1:52 to go, Steaua had a match ball, a 6 on 5 after a time-out but missed it and with 1:10 from time Ivan Gusarov sent a fierce shot to the net from the perimeter for 13-12. And just like two weeks ago, Steaua couldn’t bag all three points as Oradea forced a penalty at 0:04 and Ivan Gardasevic put it away. This set the ground for the shootout which lasted eight rounds. And it was Ivan Zivkovic who missed the crucial one – in fact his first one was also saved – and Oradea sailed away with two really valuable points.

Group B

FTC-Telekom Budapest (HUN) v Jadran Split (CRO) 18-9, Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) v SPD Radnicki Kragujevac (SRB) 9-10

Standings: 1. FTC 9, 2. Jadran 5, 3. Radnicki 4, 4. Dinamo 0

Ferencvaros staged a brutal demonstration of power as they dismantled the Croatian champions in the second half of their encounter. Though Fradi galopped to a 3-1 lead, Marko Bijac started delivering a series of fine saves and with that firm backing Jadran not only climbed back but they took the lead at 4-5. At that point no one thought that this was going to be Split’s last sign of life for 14 minutes.

Stylianos Argyropoulos was on fire once more and Dusan Mandic joined the party as he scored from the centre to regain the lead before halftime at 6-5. While this was on the cards – what happened in the third period was not, perhaps. The title-holders geared up, Edoardo di Somma netted two in 31 seconds for 8-5 to deliver the first blow. Then the hosts denied Jadran in a man-down and Adam Nagy stunned Bijac from the distance, at 9-5 Jadran seemed to be done. They were running out of energy and ideas while the home side never considered slowing down an option. A bit later Krisztian Manhercz added two and Nagy completed the devastating run with a last-gasp action goal.

The 6-0 rout did the damage, though the Croats could score again after 14 minutes and managed to find the back of the net four times in the fourth, still, they were unable to prevent Fradi from hitting six more.

One should dig deep into the archives to find a match where Marko Bijac conceded 18 goals in regular time – but Ferencvaros seems to have hit a devastating form already and on their way to the Quarter-final Round.

Though teams may sometimes consider their visit to Tbilisi an easy tour, if they don’t enter the pool with full focus they could get into trouble. And this is what happened to Radnicki who found themselves 5-1 down deep into the second period – a bit for a team featuring freshly crowned Olympic champs. Two of Paris’s heroes, Nikola Jaksic and Strahinja Rasovic halved the gap in 43 seconds before halftime, still, they had a lot to work.

In the third, NBG lost one of their key men, Radomir Drasovic with a red card but the hosts missed the 6 on 5 after a time-out and Dusan Vasic finished off a counter to make it 5-4 (instead of 6-3) and in 44 seconds Bogdan Gavrilovic made it even at 5-5. Boris Vapenski broke Dinamo’s drought after almost eight minutes so the Georgians took back the lead for 6-5 before the last period.

Jaksic stepped up early in the fourth, hit two in a span of 30 seconds but before the Serbs could gain some ground, the Georgians responded with two fast goals and led again at 8-7 with 5:20 remaining. Vasic levelled the score from a penalty, but Luka Chikovani netted a brilliant one from a counter, so Dinamo led again with 3:51 from time. The Georgians killed a man-down and then Vapenski was close but hit the post. Soon Radnicki could force a 6 on 4 and Vasic sent the ball home, soon they had another man-up and a great play saw Nikola Murisic finish it off from close for 9-10. Dinamo had 30 seconds to save the match to a shootout, but a turnover foul was called in the last seconds, angering the fans who thought Dinamo could have taken more from this match.