Hungary’s Ferencvaros has become the third team after Italian sides Brescia (2002,
2003) and Savona (2010, 2011) to win back-to- back titles in the Euro Cup. The
Budapest based team completed a perfect run in the competition as they won all
15 matches they played.
The last one was as thrilling as it could be, though, and produced incredible twists
and turns. Ferencvaros – earning only a single-goal lead in the first leg – opened
the return game with an explosive series of attacks and took a commanding 0-4
lead in a span of 4:38 minutes.
Then, just as in Budapest, Verona ‘arrived’ to the game and with some great
defending combined with a bit of luck they managed to freeze their rivals while
coming back to 4-4 early in the third. The hosts had multiple possessions to take
the lead and go even in aggregate but couldn’t go on, missed a crucial 6 on 5 while
Ferencvaros managed to score again after an embarrassing silence of 18:01
minutes (4-5).
The Italians missed another extra in the last moments while the visitors opened
the last period with a brilliant goal from the centre by their veteran Serbian
Olympic champion Slobodan Nikic. Though Antonio Petkovic pulled one back from
a man-up but Szilard Jansik scored his second brilliant action goal immediately for
5-7 and from that point Verona seemed to run out of gas, perhaps it took them too
much to come back from 0-4 down. Denes Varga, who struggled to deliver his
magic in the earlier phase of the match, netted another outstanding one with 3:43
to go, and with these four consecutive action goals Ferencvaros finished off its
challenger. (They beat Banco BPM for the third time in this season.)
It also means that Hungarian clubs continue to sweep the titles on offer at the
European stage. Last season the Magyar clubs won three trophies out of four
(Champions League: Szolnok; Euro Cup: Ferencvaros; women’s LEN Trophy: UVSE).
This season they have already bagged two out of two, Dunaujvaros triumphed in
the LEN Trophy last Saturday and here came Ferencvaros – next is the women’s
Euro League F4 on this Friday and Saturday, also featuring a HUN club, and two
sides just secured their respective places in the Champions League Final Eight for
June.
Euro Cup, Final, 2 nd leg
Banco BPM SM Busto (ITA) v Ferencvaros-PSQ WP (HUN) 5-8
Aggregate: 13-17
