Men’s Euro Cup: Goal-fest at the “Bruno Bianchi”, Trieste beats CN Barcelona (20-16)

A strong start. In their opening game of the Men’s Euro Cup group stage, Pallanuoto Trieste defeated CN Barcelona 20-16 at the “Bruno Bianchi” pool. This victory allows the team, sponsored by Samer & Co. Shipping, to reach 3 points in Group B, together with Szolnok, who won 16-15 on Dinamo Bucharest’s home ground. “Congratulations to the boys,” said head coach Maurizio Mirarchi, “we were always in control of the game; it’s just a pity for a few situations where we lost focus. Now we need to recover our energy ahead of the league match.” “We had a good approach,” added general manager Andrea Brazzatti, “we created an early gap and managed to maintain it. There are still some aspects to improve in our game management, but overall we’re satisfied.”

Match report. Trieste jumped ahead 3-0, then 4-2 with a counterattack finished by Mezzarobba. Watanabe and Prat made it 4-4, Draskovic and Daura traded goals for 5-5. With 9 seconds left in the first period, Mezzarobba scored for 6-5.

Trieste raised the tempo in the second quarter: Manzi, Podgornik, and Petronio put together another 3-0 run (9-5), forcing the Spanish coach to call a timeout. The momentum didn’t change — Manzi added two more (11-7), Mezzarobba fired one under the crossbar for 12-7, and Draskovic scored a backhander to close the half at 13-7.

The script remained the same in the third period. Barcelona tried to close the gap with Daura and Van der Weijden, but Draskovic converted two penalties (15-9). Mezzarobba made it +7 (16-9) before a brief comeback by the visitors brought the score to 17-12 with 8 minutes left.

In the fourth quarter, the Alabardati focused on managing the game. Manzi and Mezzarobba kept scoring, and at 19-12 with 5:30 left, the match was virtually sealed. The Spaniards reacted slightly to make it 19-15, but Marziali and Paul fixed the final score at 20-16.

On Saturday, October 18, Serie A1 returns: at the “Bruno Bianchi”, Pallanuoto Trieste will host Canottieri Napoli (3:30 PM).

PALLANUOTO TRIESTE - CN BARCELONA 20-16 (6-5; 7-2; 4-5; 3-4)
PALLANUOTO TRIESTE: Lazovic, Podgornik 1, Petronio 2, Fumo, P. Faraglia 1, Liprandi, Manzi 4, Mezzarobba 5, Razzi, Draskovic 5, Szabo, Cagalj, Oliva, Marziali 2. Coach: Mirarchi
CN BARCELONA: Matarredona, Watanabe 2, Villamayor, Angelescu, Prat 3, Ramon 1, Paul 1, Van der Weijde 3, Andrabe, Gomà 2, Daura 4, Velkov, Vinuales, Millan. Coach: Iosep
Referees: Franulovic (Cro) and Achladiotis (Gre)