Olympiacos and Greek national team coach, Theodoros Vlachos, has said his team’s 22-9 hammering by CNAB Zodiac in the LEN Champions League quarter-finals in Belgrade is the clubs worst defeat in its ninety-six-year history.
Speaking to the press after the game, the shell-shocked 52-year-old said “it was the worst defeat in the history of our club and now I feel terribly sorry for our fans, for our club”.
He added that “it’s going to be tough to recover from this as I saw their (the Olympiacos players) faces during the match. I have never seen anything similar in my career”.
“This match was not worthy to Olympiacos”.
Olympiacos Piraeus, who won the competition in 2018 and were runners up in 2019, may not have been the outright favourites in the game on the night, but no one could have expected them to capitulate as they did, losing the first quarter 6-0, and the first half 13-2, to the Spanish champions.
Barceloneta will face Pro Recco in the first semi-final on Friday, whilst the second semi-final features reigning champions, Ferencvaros against Italian division winners, AN Brescia.
Speaking after the game, the Barceloneta vice-captain, Felipe Perrone, said “regardless of how it might seem, this match was not easy. We have been waiting for this all season. Olympiacos has been in three finals recently and is a great team that has a lot of experience in the Champions League”.
But the Brazilian-turned-Spanish international was being polite, as Olympiacos never got going in a game that could raise questions about Vlachos’s future in Piraeus.
Olympiacos centre-back, Dimitrios Skoumpakis, echoed his coaches comments “It was a very bad game. We simply didn’t play our game. This is not us. Now it’s too late to change that or turn back time. This was one of the most important matches. We must not leave it like this. Tomorrow we must show the best of us. We don’t want to finish the season like that. We hope to show a better face tomorrow.”
ALSO READ: LEN Champions League: Pro Recco defeat Waspo
The best Olympiacos can hope for now is 5th position, as they will face Waspo98 Hannover on Friday in the first semi-final for the 5-8th classification matches. The second 5-8th classification match features JUG Dubrovnik and the French champions, CN Marseille.
Yesterday’s results are as follows:
Pro Recco-Waspo 98 Hannover 16:9 (5:2, 4:3, 1:2, 6:2)
Pro Recco: Bijac, Di Fulvio, Mandic 2, Figlioli 1, Younger 1, Velotto 1, N. Presciutti 1, Echenique 1, Ivovic 5, Hallock 1, Aicardi 2, Luongo 1, Negri.
Waspo Hannover: Schenkel, Corusic, Macan, Real, Da, Brguljan 3, A. Radovic 1, Muslim 1, Nagaev, Kubisch, M. Brguljan, Schutze 2, Winkelhorst 2, Goetz.
Ferencvaros – Marseille 14:6 (3:0, 4:1, 3:3, 4:2)
Ferencvaros: Vogel, Sedlmayer, Ven. Vigvari 2, Zalanki 2, Vamos 3, Mezei, Fountoulis 4, Jaksic, Fekete, Varga, S. Jansik 1, Constantin-Bicari 2, Gardonyi.
Marseille: Lazovic, Cuckovic, Vanpeperstraete, Spaic, Prlainovic 1, Vernoux, Crousillat, Izdinsky, Marion-Vernoux 1, Kovacevic 1, Vukicevic 2, Camarasa 1, Hovhannisyan.
JUG Dubrovnik – AN Brescia 10:12 (2:3, 3:3, 3:3, 2:3)
JUG Dubrovnik: Popadic , Obert, Fatovic 4, Loncar, Krzic, Garcia 1, I.Vukojevic, Merkulov 1, Papanastasiou 1, Zuvela , Benic 3, Obradovic, A.Vukojevic.
AN Brescia: Del Lungo, Dolce,C.Presciutti 1, Lazic 1, Jokovic , Nikolaidis 1, Renzuto 2, Cannella 2, Alesiani 3, Vlachopoulos 2, Balazarini, Gitto, Rossi.
CNAB Barceloneta – Olympiacos Piraeus 22:9 (6:0, 7:2, 6:3, 3:4)
CNAB Barceloneta: Lopez, Famera 4, Munarriz 1, Bodegas 3, Larumbe 1, Aleksic 4, Fernandez 2, De Toro 2, Perrone 1, Mallarach 4, Bustos, Coimbra.
Olympiacos Piraeus : Zerdevas, Daube 1, Skoumpakis, Genidounias 3, Argyropoulos 1, Prekas, Dervisis 2, Kakaris 2, Mourikis, Kapotsis, Chrysospathis, Irving, Galanopoulos.