Will Waspo stay in the Final Eight?
The Water Polo Champions League goes into a new round. The seventh matchday is played, which concludes the first round in the two groups of eight. German champion Waspo Hannover has to travel to Romania to face Steaua Bucharest. A win is a must for the team from Lower Saxony if they still want to flirt with a place in the Final Eight.
The first four teams in this group will advance to the final round. Pro Recco, CN Marseille and probably also Jug Dubrovnik are probably out of reach for Waspo. Fourth place, which is currently occupied by OSC Budapest, can only be the target. At the moment, however, they are five points behind the Hungarians. A win on Wednesday should therefore be a must.
In addition, the Hanoverians will be hoping for some help from Berlin, as Spandau will be jumping into the pool at the same time in the Hungarian capital. The Romanians will no longer have any ambitions towards the Final Eight, because the last team in the table has two points less than Waspo. Therefore, the first prediction for the duel between Steaua Bucharest and Hannover is a victory for the guests.
However, Karsten Seehafer’s team can already bury their greatest hopes if it is not enough for a win in Bucharest.
Steaua Bucharest – Statistics & current form
In terms of water polo, Romania is still a developing country. There are hardly any professional teams. That’s why the national championship is mostly just a formality for Steaua. Things only get exciting on the international stage. But because the Romanian water polo players are hardly competitive, there is no corresponding pool from which Steaua could recruit great talent.
Redeeming victory
The Romanians have benefited from the fact that the group stage was increased from two groups of six to two groups of eight and Steaua, as national champions, qualified directly for the group matches. However, the games so far have shown that the top flight is too big for them.
After five defeats in a row, Steaua finally had their first win in December when they beat Red Star Belgrade 11-8 at home. Waspo is the next opponent in the Romanian capital who could possibly be beatable. With a home win, Aurelian Georgescu’s team could take over the red lantern and jump up to fifth place.
After the win against the Serbians, coach Aurelian Georgescu is now quite optimistic about Wednesday’s clash against the German champions. However, we think that in the duel between Steaua Bucharest and Waspo Hannover, the odds on an away win should be the better choice if the Lower Saxons present themselves in normal form.
The Steaua Bucharest squad:
Tic, Dragusin – Gheorghe, Negrean, Fulea, Vancsik, Neamtu, Mudrazija, V. Georgescu, Oanta, Iudean, Goanta – Coach: A. Georgescu
Hannover – Statistics & current form
Hope is still there that Waspo Hannover will qualify for the Final Eight. However, it should also be clear that it is a very difficult task. The Lower Saxons have to make up five points. Especially against the clubs from the lower half of the table, to which the Waspo team also belongs, they cannot afford to slip up.
Waspo with decent form
That’s why a win is needed in Bucharest. Recently, the Lower Saxons have been in good form and lost only twice in the last ten games, against the top teams of the Pro Group Recco and Marseille. Therefore, we can imagine predicting an away win in the duel between Steaua Bucharest and Hannover
The Niedersachsen played their last match just before Christmas. They hosted the defending Champions League champions and were shown up by Pro Recco by every trick in the book. Waspo could only keep up in the second quarter, all the other sections went clearly to the Italians and so the final score was 7:20.
However, this game was nothing more than a bonus game. The defeat had to be planned for. That will be different on Wednesday. However, Hannover must make sure that they concentrate fully on the game in Romania, because the eternally young top game against Spandau Berlin is on the agenda in the Bundesliga at the weekend.
The Hannover squad:
Schenkel – Götz – Corusic, Macan, Real, D. Brguljan, Radovic, Muslim, Nagaev, Kubisch, Rotermund, Schütze, Winkelhorst – Coach: Seehafer
Steaua Bucharest – Hannover Direct comparison / H2H-balance
We can hardly cite the direct comparison for our assessment of this match. After all, the only two matches between Steaua Bucharest and Waspo Hannover took place around seven years ago. At that time, the two opponents met in the quarter-finals of the Euro Cup. Steaua won the first leg in Romania 9:7.
Waspo would have needed a home win to reach the semi-finals, but that did not happen. The return match in Hanover ended with a 9:9. The semifinals were also the end of the line for the Romanians when Steaua Bucharest failed to beat the future cup winners Posillipo. The bottom line is that Waspo is still waiting for its first victory against Steaua.
Steaua Bucharest – Hannover Tip
There is no way around the fact that Waspo must win in Romania on Wednesday. The German champions go into this encounter favoured, but it won’t be easy after Steaua tasted blood with their win against Red Star.
After all, Waspo have only lost two of their last ten games, and those only against two absolute European top teams. Steaua, on the other hand, have lost five out of six games in the top division. Therefore, we stick to our recommendation to bet on a win for the visitors between Steaua Bucharest and Waspo Hannover.
While the Lower Saxons have never won against Bucharest before, the only two games were also seven years ago and Waspo have made a big step forward since then. That’s why we decided to play the betting odds on a handicap win (-1.5) for Waspo in the match between Steaua Bucharest and Hannover.
