The group phase of the men’s football tournament in Rijeka ended, revealing all quarter finals participants.
GROUP A
The University of Minho managed to qualify into the next phase of the competition by winning against the University of Cologne from Germany. Minho’s tally so far includes a draw against the home team from Rijeka in the first round, a win against Ljubljana in the second, and they have now booked their ticket for the quarter finals by beating Cologne. Interestingly, this was the first defeat for Cologne in this competition.
Ljubljana was better than Rijeka in the third round of the competition. The duel of universities who didn’t show much so far in the competition was interesting to watch, and Ljubljana emerged as the winning team. This was their first win, while the home team from Rijeka ended the tournament with two defeats and a draw.
GROUP B
The team from Innsbruck was not able to stop the strong team from Niš, who won with a 15 goal margin. The team from Serbia had won their previous match with 17, and their first game on the tournament with a 23 goal margin, establishing themselves as one of the front-runners of the competition.
The teams from the University of Aveiro from Portugal and the Brancusi University of Targu – Jiu from Romania met in match which decided who would advance into the next phase. The Portuguese were more than dominant in this match and won with the advantage of 8 goals. By winning the match, the Portuguese team qualified into the quarter finals.
GROUP C
The match between Basel and Littoral Opal Coast determined who would be the second in the group, right behind VERN’, who had already secured first place. We expected an even and nerve-racking match, but the guys from Basel denied us this pleasure, sweeping their opposition with their great performance, especially in the defense. In the end Basel won 25:18.
VERN’ only needed to confirm their dominance in Group C in the match against the outsiders from Yeditepe University from Turkey. VERN’ had already defeated both teams who had in turn won against the Turks. It was evident the match would be one-sided. However, the guys from VERN’ had to prove they are a better team, which they did by winning with 33:18.
GROUP D
The team from Cyprus proved to be no match for other teams of Group C. After heavy defeats to Cordoba and Zagreb, they lost to the team from the Lithuanian Sports University with 36:25. With this victory, the Lithuanians ended in the second place of Group C, behind Zagreb.
The team from Zagreb took the first place in the group by winning all three of their matches. The first place brings them an easier opponent in the quarter finals. Cordoba was a tough opponent, especially because they had to win this game in order to advance into the next phase of the competition. However, the home team from Zagreb was better and more experienced, winning 27:24.
Results
