• The two sides meet at this stage again after 2015 in Barcelona. A year ago Jug won 10-8, Andro Buslje scored 3 goals for the Croats.
• Eger plays in the final stage of the Champions League for the second time, the Hungarians had 7 unsuccessful attempts before making the finals last May for the first time.
• Eger is the only team in the Final Six which arrives to the F6 without becoming national champion in recent weeks. They lost 3-2 to the other Hungarian F6 participant Szolnok in the domestic final. Though earlier this season they won the national cup, beating Szolnok in the final.
• Eger has won the national title 3 times (2011, 2013, 2014).
• Jug has a rich history in the Champions League: they won the title 3 times (1981, 2001, 2006 – all in finals held in Dubrovnik), were runners-up also 3 times (2007, 2008, 2013) and reached the Final Four/Six 9 times altogether since they first made it in 2001. Between 2005 and 2010 they were part of the show in 6 straight occasions.
• Jug won the LEN Trophy once, in 2000.
• Jug returned to the top in the Croatian league after two years. Between 2000 and 2013 they won the national championship 11 times, in 2014 and 2015 Primorje Rijeka finished atop but this May saw Jug sweeping their Adriatic arch-rival 3-0 in the final.
• They won the Croatian/Yugoslavian championships 33 times altogether.
• Jug’s head coach Vjekoslav Kobescak leads a team in the finals of the Champions League for the third time: he headed Mladost Zagreb in 2012 in Oradea, finishing 3rd, while last year he was 4th with Jug. This is the second F6 for Eger’s head-coach Norbert Dabrowski. Last year they came 5th.
• The two coaches, Dabrowski and Kobescak met as players in the Final Four in 2000 in Becej (SRB) when Mladost (CRO) and BVSC (HUN) clashed in the semi-finals. Mladost won 6-4.
• As usual, Jug was dominant at home in the prelims, held Recco on a 5-5 draw and won the other four games. Away they lost to Recco and Szolnok and beat the other three lower ranked sides to post a 7-1-2 scoreline.
• Eger had a tough job in Group A, however, despite enjoying a guaranteed spot as the official host of this event, the Hungarians battled their way through the prelims and finished second. They were undefeated at home, had 3 wins and 2 draws (with Olympiacos and Primorje), while in the away games they had 1 win, 2 draws and 2 defeats (both ended in 7-8, against Primorje and Olympiacos). Eger final score-line is 4-4-2.
• Jug scored more goals than Eger in the prelims: the Croats netted 105 (the 3rdbest in the League), Eger had 90.
• Goals against: Eger conceded 80 goals (1 more than last year), Jug got 83 (10 more than in 2015).
• Jug’s new player, Brazilian Felipe Perrone is second on the top scorers’ list with 24 hits. Balazs Harai is the best scorer for Eger with 16 goals (11th in overall).
• Eger has two players in its team who were named the MVP of the Final Four in previous editions. Peter Biros was the best player in 2004 (with Honved), Marton Szivos was in 2006 (playing for Recco).
• In terms of individual merits, Eger’s captain Peter Biros is the most decorated player in the current field: the 39 year-old Hungarian is a 3-time Olympic champion (2000, 2004, 2008), World (2003) and European champion (1999), World Cup (1999) and World League winner (2003, 2004), won the Champions League in 2004 and was runner-up 3 times. This event is going to be his farewell as a player as he finishes his illustrious career here.
• Besides last year’s match, the two sides clashed were in the prelims in the 2013/14 season: Jug won 16-11 in Dubrovnik and again 10-8 in Eger.
• In the 2010/2011 prelims Jug beat Eger home and away in the prelims: it was 9-10 in Eger and 15-10 in Dubrovnik.
