No unbeaten side remained in the field after injury-hit Novi Beograd fell in Budapest where Ferencvaros won a kind of shooting contest. Since Brescia made no mistake in Berlin, the Italians took back the top spot in this group. OSC and Jug played a thrilling tie, not the best result for these two who are chasing the top ranked sides. Sabadell claimed its first win in the season, at the expense of Marseille which were dropped to the bottom.
 
Day 6, Group B: FTC-Telekom Budapest (HUN) v Novi Beograd (SRB) 14-12, Spandau 04 Berlin (GER) v AN Brescia (ITA) 10-16, Genesys-OSC Budapest (HUN) v Jug Adriatic Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO) 9-9, Astralpool Sabadell (ESP) v CN Marseille (FRA) 13-11
Standings: 1. Brescia 15, 2. Novi Beograd 13, 3. Ferencvaros 12, 4. Jug 8, 5. OSC 6, 6. Spandau 5, 7. Sabadell 4, 8. Marseille 4
 
Brescia didn’t let the Spandau players think of anything similar they had achieved two weeks ago when they had stunned Ferencvaros. The Italians brought their disciplined, aggressive and highly effective game to the pool. Though their defence did not work flawlessly as in the previous rounds – got three goals right away in the first quarter –, their win was never in danger.
 
Ferencvaros bounced back from the Berlin shock and beat Novi Beograd in an entertaining game which sometimes was more similar to practice day out at a shooting range. The health issues of the Serbs definitely played to their hands – NBG missed four of their key players – and the Magyars made most of their chances. This also means that the last unbeaten side fell in the prelims (after Recco thrashed Barceloneta in the other group on Tuesday).
 
And the two winners also got some ‘great’ news on the ‘chasing camp’ as none of their most dangerous rivals could win. OSC and Jug staged a thrilling battle where the Croats led by three late in the second period, but the Magyars managed to come back and after shutting out Jug for 10:45 minutes, took a 9-7 lead in the fourth. Jug woke up in time and veteran Maro Jokovic saved the game to a draw with a fine action goal 40 seconds before the buzzer. 
 
Marseille sank further – the French team, which had reached the Final Eight in the previous two seasons, suffered their fourth defeat in six rounds. Sabadell came up big to win their first game in the season, in fact they left no chance for their rivals, dominated for four periods as Sergi Cabanas netted 7 goals.
 
Men’s Euro Cup, quarter-finals, 1^st leg
 
Vasas, Panionios and Savona are en route to the semis
 
Vasas and Panionios claimed big home wins while Savona had a great away victory in France. The only tight match was held in Szolnok where Trieste won a 25-goal thriller.
 
Quarter-finals, 1^st leg: A Hid-Vasas Plaket (HUN) v VK Sabac (SRB) 10-4, Szolnoki Dozsa (HUN) v Trieste Pallanuoto (ITA) 12-13, Panionios GSS (GRE) v CSM Oradea (ROU) 10-5, EN Tourcoing (FRA) v SN Savona (ITA) 5-8. Return leg: 8 February
 
In the highlighted game, Savona stormed to a 0-4 lead by halftime while showing some amazing defending. Tourcoing could score their first after 17:45 minutes but were still trailing 2-6 with eight minutes left. Savona, facing 20 man-downs in total, were getting tired and the French climbed back to 5-7, but the Italians’ seasoned veteran Valerio Rizzo put away an extra 10 seconds from time to secure a three-goal win for his side.
 
Fellow Italian club Trieste played a spectacular encounter in Szolnok. The Hungarians were leading by one or two goals for three periods, but Trieste scored three connecting goals after 11-10 in the fourth and the hosts could pull back only one.
 
Vasas passed their next Serbian test with flying colours – after beating Crvena Zvezda by five at home in the eight-finals, now they downed Sabac by six. The Hungarians stormed to a 6-1 lead, were 7-3 up at halftime, then shut out their rival in the third period while expanded the gap to six goals. They kept that till the end – though they need to be on high alert in two-week time as they almost blew their five-goal advantage in Serbia last December.
 
Panionios also did some damage in the third period – they won that quarter 2-0 as well to take a 7-3 lead against Oradea. The Greeks managed to build a five-goal difference by the end which might be enough to make the semis.
 
Men’s Challenger Cup, Quarter-finals, 1^st leg
 
Decisive victories in all four matches
 
Though there are still return legs to play, it’s hard to see that any of the today’s winners won’t make the semis in the newly launched Challenger Cup. The two Spanish teams were especially outstanding.
 
Quarter-finals, 1^st leg: SV Ludwigsburg 08 (GER) v CN Terrassa (ESP) 7-16, Apollon Smyrnis (GRE) v Galatasaray Istanbul (TUR) 9-5, Enka Istanbul (TUR) v ZPC Het Ravijn (NED) 14-8, Tenerife Echeyde (ESP) v SKP Kosice (SVK) 22-8. Return leg: 8 February
 
Terrassa did a clean job in Germany – Ludwigsburg were 4-7 down at halftime already and their tank was running dry in the second half where the Spaniards produced a 3-9 run. The other team from Spain, Tenerife also enjoyed an easy cruising at home against Kosice – a 4-1 opening was followed by an 8-1 thrashing in the second to secure the semi-final appearance virtually by halftime – at the end they stopped at 22 goals.
 
Of the two Istanbul-based sides, Enka stormed to a 3-0 lead early on, held the three-goal gap till the last period and doubled it by the end against Het Ravijn. Veteran Croatian Olympic champ Paolo Obradovic led the charge with 6 goals – in view of the final result, 14-8, we can say he made the difference.
 
The other Turkish club was soundly beaten in Greece – Galatasaray fell 4-0 behind early on but came back to 7-5 towards the end of the third in the home of Apollon Smyrnis. However, the hosts had the last laugh, they scored the only goal in the fourth while the Turks, after being unable to score in the first 11 minutes, also remained scoreless in the last eleven too. That led to a four-goal defeat, perhaps a gap too much to bridge in two weeks.