RRI Sports Club

The latest news from water polo.

Florin Orban, 18.09.2019, 13:45

The Romanian water polo
vice-champions CSM Oradea will be facing the Spanish side Club Natació Terrassa
in the Champions League third preliminary round. The first leg will take place
on the 21st of September in Spain, and the second on the 25th
of September in Romania, on the Ioan Alexandrescu Olympic Pool in Oradea. Even
if they lose, CSM Oradea remain in the European competitions, playing in the
Euro Cup quarterfinals.

CSM Oradea finished second in the
second preliminary round in a group won by the Italian side Brescia and which
also included the Spanish side Club Natació Barcelona and the Georgian side Lokomotiv
Tbilisi. In their first match, CSM were thrashed by Brescia 4-16. They then
went on to defeat the Georgian side 25-6. In their final match on Sunday, CSM
narrowly defeated Barcelona 9-8, with their Japanese international player Yusuke
Inaba scoring the winning goal 44 seconds ahead of the end of the match.

Club Natació Terrassa won a group
that also included the French side Team Strasbourg, the Romanian champions
Steaua Bucharest and the Serbian side VK Šabac. The matches were played at a
venue in Terrassa, 30 km from Barcelona. This was a much more balanced group,
with tighter results. Steaua lost their first match to the Spanish side 9-12.
They also lost their second match to Strasbourg 7-9 and won their final group
match against the Serbian side 17-13. They finished third in the group and were
not able to advance to the next stage.