Olympiacos fought for another European title until the last second but finally, Kirishi won 7-6. Some wrong referee decision influenced the final score. Specifically, the Head Coach Charis Pavlides called a timeout but the referees didn’t give it in the right time so as to organize the last attack. Olympiacos finished in the second position of the Euroleague adding another European distinction in its history. 

Key action: 

Kinef water polo players were highly motivated to finally win the Euro League in front of the home crowd and controlled the final game from the very beginning. They opened the match with three consecutive goals netted by Ryzhkova, Prokofyeva, and Ivanova. Asimaki then scored the initial and the last one in the first quarter for Olympiacos. Kinef went on to increase the advantage to three after the extra-man situation when Ivanova managed to find the net for 4-1.

In the second quarter, Olympiacos water polo players stepped up their defense and managed to bring down the deficit to one with goals from Eleftheriadou and Plevritou. Kinef had the last word in the second period as Simanovic gave her team a two-goal lead at halftime (5-3). Both teams played a balanced third quarter in which Olympiacos missed a chance for a draw after falling behind by one again thanks to Avramidou’s goal. Cautious Kinef kept the two-goal advantage in the third quarter when Glyzina found the goal with around four minutes left on the clock.

Neither Kinef nor Olympiacos managed to score for almost three minutes in the final period. Prokofyeva scored goal number seven for the Kirishi team making it harder for their rival to keep hoping. Plevritou netted her second and Emmolo also found the net to make it 6-7 around one minute before the end. Yet the 2015 champion failed to tie the result and ultimately won the silver medal. Kinef water polo players gave a brilliant performance playing their 11th final in 13 years and won their first Euro League in history.

Match data: 

The quarters:  1-4, 2-1, 1-1, 1-2

Goals: 

1st quarter: 0-1 Ryzhkova, 0-2 Prokofyeva, 0-3 Ivanova, 1-3 Asimaki, 1-4 Ivanova

2nd quarter: 2-4 Eleftheriadou, 3-4 El. Plevritou, 3-5 Simanovic

3rd quarter: 4-5 Avramidou, 4-6 Glyzina

4th quarter: 4-7 Prokofyeva, 5-7 El. Plevritou, 6-7 Emmolo

Squads: 

Kinef Kirishi (Aleksandr Kabanov): Karnaukh, Zubkova, Prokofyeva 2, Simanovich 1, Krimer, Khamzaeva, Kirilcheva, Iakusheva, Soboleva, Ivanova 2, Ryzhkova 1, Glyzina 1 

Olympiacos (Teocharis Pavlides): Diamantopoulou, El. Plevritou 2, Eleftheriadou 1, Manolioudaki, Avramidou 1, Asimaki 1, Sora, M. Plevritou, Emmolo 1, V. Plevritou, Bianconi, Smith, Stamatopoulou

Quotes: 

Charis Pavlidis, head coach, Olympiacos:

“We didn’t have a very good first quarter and gave too much advantage for our opponents. But we were able to show our character and returned to the match. But the time wasn’t sufficient to complete our comeback. To my opinion, a couple of pretty challengeable decisions of the referees had an impact to the outcome of the game.”