The women’s water polo team will continue its European presence in the Final Four of Len Trophy after the defeat by Kirishi (10-11) in the rematch of the quarter-final held in Papastrateio. This was the first home defeat after four years when the ‘’Reds’’ had defeated by Sabadell in the season 2013-2014. Then, Olympiacos won its first European title which will claim this year participating in a final-four European tournament for five consecutive years. Regarding the game, Prokofyeva scored nine seconds before the end and gave the qualification to Kirishi. The final result could be different if a goal of Russians was not mistakenly scored in a 7-7 draw in the last minute of the third period. 

Key action: 

The Russians led 3-5 late in the second period but Olympiacos responded with a 4-0 rush – still, Kirishi didn’t succumb and equalised for 7-7 before the last break. The Greeks took the lead twice in the last quarter, but next came the title-holders with back-to-back goals going 9-10 up with 1:44 to go. Only 56 seconds were remaining when Olympiacos levelled for 10-10 but they couldn’t force the penalties as Ekaterina Prokofyeva put away a 6 on 5 with 0:08 on the clock. It means Olympiacos will miss the Euro League F4 for the first time since 2014.

Match data: 

The quarters:  2-2, 3-3, 2-2, 3-4

Goals: 

1st quarter: 0-1 Ryzhkova (5:40), 0-2 Krimer (4:47), 1-2 Eggens (4:06), 2-2 Emmolo (3:39)

2nd quarter: 2-3 Prokofyeva (7:05), 2-4 Prokofyeva (5:41), 3-4 Eggens (5:34), 3-5 Soboleva (1:54), 4-5 Eggens (1:31), 5-5 Tsoukala (0:40)

3rd quarter: 6-5 Emmolo (5:33), 7-5 Eggens (3:54), 7-6 Soboleva (3:09), 7-7 Ivanova (1:37)

4th quarter: 8-7 El. Plevritou (6:49), 8-8 Simanovic (6:11), 9-8 Avramidou (5:44), 9-9 Simanovich (03:07), 9-10 Ryzhkova (1:44), 10-10 Asimaki (0:56), 10-11 Prokofyeva (0:09)

Squads: 

Olympiacos (Teocharis Pavlides): Diamantopoulou, El. Plevritou 1, Eggens 4, Eleftheriadou, Manolioudaki, Avramidou 1, Asimaki 1, M. Plevritou, Emmolo 2, B. Plevritou, Tsoukala 1, Myriokefalitaki, Stamatopoulou

Kinef Kirishi (Aleksandr Kabanov): Karnaukh, Zubkova, Prokofyeva 3, Simanovich 2, Diachenko, Krimer 1, Khamzaeva, Kirilcheva, Iakusheva, Soboleva 2, Ivanova 1, Ryzhkova 2, Smykova

Quotes: 

Charis Pavlides said: ‘’We weren’t so good and conceded 11 goals again. They were two closed games and Kirishi was more careful and won. We weren’t concentrated in the last quarter as we took the lead but didn’t keep it. I would like to thank our fans who come to support us. Their atmosphere was fantastic but we disappointed them as well as the Club Administration.’’

Alexandra Asimaki stated: ‘’We are very unhappy as we didn’t achieve to win and qualify to the Euroleague final-4. Personally, it’s the first year that we don’t qualify to the final-4 of the best European competition. We wanted to secure this qualification for our fans and Administration that support us. We are going to continue to Len Trophy, another European Cup that is very important to win. Our goal is to win this trophy and the national ones. We will continue to work hard.’’