Under pressure: Honvéd head coach István Kovács.

Wolfgang Philipps (02.03.2006) In both do-or-die games the home teams, Honvéd-Dominó and Partizan-Raiffeisen, just need a tie to advance to the quarter-finals, but for the guest teams a narrow victory by only one goal would already be enough to march through as winner of the head-to-head duels. And the pressure on the Hungarians has still been growing this week: In the top match of the national league the 2005 finalist suffered a 9-10 home loss to local rival "TEVA" Vasas-Plaket Budapest, which is already qualified for the round of last eight.

The reigning LEN Trophy finalist Belgrade can always rely on a huge home crowd in important game, but 2004 LEN Trophy winner Barcelona already gained a narrow 14-13 away victory in the first "death match" two weeks before against the Greek vice-champion Ethnikos Piraeus, and the Spaniards gained some one-goal-victories in the recent matches of the national league. The first head-to-duel of both teams, which was held in Barcelona in the competition venue of the 2003 World Chamnpionships, ended with a 6-6 tie.

Four other teams are still aiming for the pretty important group victories. In the quarter-finals, which be held in a knock-out mode on a home and away basis, each of the second-ranked teams of the Preliminary Round will play one of the group winners. Two of the three strong Italian representatives, RN "La Filanda Carisa" Savona and Pro Recco, have already secured the first place in their resprective group, and no other of the remaining contenders wants play one of the Italian clubs already in the round of last eight.

Here the two remaining battleground pools are Group A and B. In the matches of "death group" A the reigning title-holders of CN "Atlantis" Posillipo from Italy just need a tie in a promising away match against the winless tailender Wasserfreunde Spandau 04 (Germany) to bring another pole position to Italy. In Group B, the only pool without any Italian team, the Croatian representative Jug Dubrovnik needs two points in the difficult home match against Olympiakos Piraeus (Greece), a duel of two former Champions League winners and reigning national champions.


EuroLeague 2005-2006

Preliminary Round

Schedule day 6

Saturday, 4 March 2005
18:00 Honvéd "Dominó" Budapest (HUN) vs. HAVK Mladost Zagreb (CRO)- Group A
18:00 Wasserfreunde Spandau 04 (GER) vs. CN "Atlantis" Posillipo (ITA) - Group A
18:00 CN Marseille (FRA) vs. "TEVA" Vasas-Plaket Budapest (HUN) - Group B
18:00 Jug Dubrovnik (CRO) vs. Olympiakos Piraeus (GRE) - Group B
18:00 Partizan "Raiffeisen" Belgrade (SCG) vs. CN Barcelona (ESP) - Group C
19:00* Ethnikos Piraeus (GRE) vs. RN "La Filanda Carisa" Savona (ITA) - Group C
18:00 CN Atlètic Barceloneta (ESP) vs. Pro Recco (ITA) - Group D
20:00* Shturm 2002 Chehov (RUS) vs. Jadran Herceg Novi (SCG) - Group D

* local time (all matches are starting at 6 pm CET).