Difficult start to the top flight for Waspo
In football, the group phase of the Champions League is already over. In handball, they are in the middle of it and only now are the group matches in the top division in water polo also starting. German champion Waspo Hannover will open the international season on Tuesday at Stadionbad and will face top Croatian team Jadran Split.
The Lower Saxons made it to the Final Eight last season and finished very well there in sixth place. Should the German champions reach the final tournament again this season, they could be very satisfied with that, because the group opponents are quite a challenge. Jadran Split is just the tip of the iceberg.
With Pro Recco, both teams will also face the defending champions from Italy, currently the best water polo team in the world. Barceloneta, Olympiakos Piraeus and the Serbians from Radnicki should all be stronger than Karsten Seehafer’s team. Therefore, the bookmakers are predicting an away win in the duel between Waspo Hannover and Jadran Split.
We can only agree with this assessment. Jadran are already playing a terrific season so far, while Waspo have just jumped back into the pool for two must-win games.
Waspo Hannover – statistics & current form
The German water polo champions are facing a very difficult season. What has already been indicated at the last two tournaments with the national team now also awaits the Lower Saxons. A major upheaval is imminent. Due to club changes and ended careers, Waspo Hannover is facing a major rebuild this season, which is likely to have a noticeable impact, especially internationally.
Extreme upheaval at German champions
Nothing is likely to change at national level this year either. Waspo Hannover and Spandau 04 will decide the titles in Germany between themselves. This is already apparent in the first games of the season. Waspo, however, have only played two games in the German Pro A Bundesliga. After the must-win games over Esslingen and Potsdam, there are two wins to show for it.
In the Pro A table, this means a place in the top group at the same time as Spandau and ASC Duisburg, who are also without a loss. The last endurance test before the Champions League opener was to be last weekend against the Wasserfreunde from Spandau. However, due to a high level of infection at the Berlin team, this match had to be cancelled. Incidentally, Spandau will also not be able to play last year’s finalist Novi Beograd in the Champions League on Wednesday.
The match against Spandau would have been a real test. Although the Hanoverians should be fresh now, we are only looking at the odds between Waspo Hannover and Jadran Split, which have something to do with an away win, because Karsten Seehofer’s team will probably not be able to immediately compensate for the departures of Ivan Nagaev, Jorn Winkelhorst, Moritz Schenkel, Julian Real, Petar Muslim and the Brguljan brothers.
Projected line-up of Waspo Hannover:
Benke, Götz – Corusic, Macan, J. Rotermund, Lozina, Radovic, Schipper, Gansen, Kubisch, Basic, F. Schütze, Benic – Coach: Seehafer
Jadran Split – Statistics & current form
Mile Smodlaka was once a world-class water polo player himself, winning World Cup gold with the Croatian Barracudas in Melbourne in 2007. As a coach, he earned his spurs as an assistant for the national team and now he seems to be on the verge of bringing Jadran Split back to the European top after they won the Champions League twice in 1992 and 1993.
Jadran in impressive form
Jadran Split finished second in the regional Superliga with teams from Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro last season. It was not only there that Jadran gained a lot of match practice this season. Among other things, Mile Smodlaka’s team had to compete in the Champions League qualifiers and also had to deal with a number of tasks in the Croatian league.
In the regional Superliga, they are in midfield after one win and one defeat. In Croatia, however, Jadran Split are currently leading the table with 13 points from five games, ahead of Jug Dubrovnik. Last weekend they had a clear 15:10 victory at Primorje, a team that had not lost a match so far. So the last endurance test was passed more than impressively.
In the top flight, the Croats first had to win through in a qualification group and then in play-offs against the Romanian club CSM Oradea. Mile Smodlaka’s team did that with flying colours. They have won ten and drawn one of their last eleven games, including some opponents who played in the group stage of the Champions League last season. There should therefore be little doubt that between Waspo Hannover and Jadran Split the prediction has to go to an unchallenged success for the guests.
Predicted line-up of Jadran Split:
Marcelic, Anic – Buric, Marinic Kragic, Cagalj, Butic, Zovic, Delic, Dobud, Pavlovic, Setka, Tomasovic, Duzevic – Coach: Smodlaka
Waspo Hannover – Jadran Split Direct comparison / H2H-balance
So far, Waspo Hannover and Jadran Split have only crossed paths twice. In the 2018/19 season, they played together in the group stage of the Champions League. Both teams won their home games at that time and thus the direct comparison is even with one win each. In the final table of this group, however, the Croatians did better.
Jadran Split ended up in fifth place and missed out on the Final Eight. However, that was not the case for Waspo. Although the Lower Saxons only finished sixth in the standings, they were in the final tournament because it was held in the Stadionbad in Hanover. In sporting terms, the Lower Saxons would not have qualified for it at the time.
Waspo Hannover – Jadran Split Tip
At national level, Waspo Hannover are not expected to collapse. However, it should be very exciting to see how Karsten Seehafer’s team will do on the international stage. No less than seven key players have left the club. It will be relatively difficult to compensate for this loss of quality in the Champions League.
The situation is different for Jadran Split. The Croatians have made a great development in the last few years and have played their way through the qualifying rounds of the Champions League.
We expect some goals to be scored as well. A bet on more than 21.5 goals doesn’t sound too bad. However, we will stick to our bets on the outcome of the match, and we see the Croatians in the lead. That is why we have even decided to play the betting odds on a handicap win (-1.5) for the guests in the match Waspo Hannover vs Jadran Split.
