Greek dramas were the highlights of the last day in the Conference Cup Women Qualification Round II. Panionios ousted fellow Greek side PAOK (Cosenza had already won that group), while Chania, losing their first two matches, managed to come up with a big win against Bochum to grab the second qualifying spot behind Tenerife. Another Spanish team, Sant Feliu, also finished atop, ahead of Alba Iulia, just like Galatasaray, whose great finish against Brizz Nuoto secured the top rank and also an F8 berth for Mladost.
The draw for the Final Eight will take place on Monday 2 March at 10:00am CET and can be watched live on the link below or on the European Aquatics YouTube channel. In the next phase, which is scheduled to be played 26-29 March, there will be two groups of four and the top two teams from each pool will progress to the semi-finals.
Following the draw, it was announced the Final Eight tournament will be held in Athens (GRE) from 26-29 March 2026 with Panionios GSS as the hosts.
Group A
(Alba Iulia)
CN Sant Feliu (ESP) 15-7 CSM Unirea Alba Iulia (ROU)
Final rankings: 1. Sant Feliu 5pts, 2. Unirea 3pts, 3. Bogliasco (ITA) 1pt
The first place in Group A was at stake on the last day, as both the Spanish and Romanian teams had secured their respective Final Eight spots by beating Bogliasco (the Italians had been edged out in a shootout by Unirea and by a single goal against St Feliu – quite a painful way to bow out).
On Sunday, the hosts could keep up until early in the second period, when they equalised at 3-3. Then Sant Feliu staged a 4-0 rush, which did the damage.
The Spaniards still had more in the tank, and a 6-0 blast in the third period was another powerful demonstration of the difference in quality between the two sides.
Sant Feliu enjoyed some easy cruising in the end, stopping at 15, and missing two penalties in the second half did nothing to affect the outcome.
Group B
(Nea Smyrni)
AC PAOK (GRE) 7-11 GSS Panionios (GRE)
Final rankings: 1. Cosenza (ITA) 6pts, 2. Panionios 3pts, 3. PAOK 0pts
Cosenza beat both Greek rivals on the first two days, so the second qualifying spot in Group B was decided by an in-house battle.
Panionios were considered the favourites and they took control of the game from the start.
They jumped to a 0-2 lead, with PAOK scored their first 48 seconds before the end of the first period from a penalty, but deep into the second quarter they were down by three at 1-4.
And despite a nice action goal, the gap remained the same at half-time as Margarita Bitsakou buried a penalty with 0:01 on the clock for 2-5.
Just 43 seconds into the third, Konstantina Xanthopoulou added another one from action and at 2-6 it seemed to be all over.
PAOK had a better spell, though, as they halved the distance with a couple of goals from the Karipidou siblings, Vasileia-Iro and Symela-Melina (only they had scored for PAOK up until that point), and were holding on at 5-7 three minutes before the last break.
Still, Dimitra Papanastasiou managed to score from action 13 seconds from time for 5-8, which was a great boost for GSS. And they capitalised on it as Papanastasiou came up with another great finish from their first possession in the fourth, and after killing a woman-down, Bitsakou buried a penalty once more to make it 5-10, leaving no way back for PAOK.
Group C
(Novi Sad)
VK Vojvodina (SRB) 10-15 CN Tenerife Echeyde (ESP)
SV Blau Weiss Bochum (GER) 11-17 NC Chania (GRE)
Final rankings: 1. Tenerife 9pts, 2. Chania 3pts, 3. Vojvodina 3pts, 4. Bochum 3pts
*Three-way tie (goal difference only in the games between the three tied teams): Chania +4, Vojvodina +1, Bochum -5
Tenerife made sure they would not be involved in any math party by beating hosts Vojvodina with a convincing performance to finish top of Group C with three clean wins.
The Spaniards were superior from the beginning; they had a 0-3 surge after 1-1 in the first period, and in the second they expanded the gap to four goals to lead 4-8 at half-time.
The Serbs fought hard, and despite trailing by five after another action goal from Tenerife, they managed to convert three woman-ups in a row to come back to 7-9.
After a quick exchange of goals, Vojvodina had a great chance to reduce the deficit to a single goal, but Anja Svec couldn’t bury a penalty 39 seconds from time, and just 22 seconds later Maryn Dempsey showed how a penalty should be sent home for 8-11.
This was the last twist. Though the first three minutes of the fourth quarter brought a tremendous battle, the nets remained untouched – then Tenerife hit the first at 4:48, and that killed Vojvodina’s last hope.
The last three minutes saw five more goals as the Spaniards sailed away with a fine victory.
This result left the door open for Chania in the last game, and the Greeks needed to beat Bochum by at least four goals to finish on top in the three-way tie and grab the second qualifying spot.
They began their quest with two blasts from the perimeter, but Emilia Khmil replied in a similar manner, so the Greeks had to push hard to keep the two-goal lead by the end of the first period.
They got going in the second; in four minutes they hit three to go up by five at 2-7, but the Germans pulled two back soon, so Chania had to carry on, and they managed to add two more as Sofia Fragkou hit her third in this quarter, 57 seconds from time for 4-9.
The Greeks just had to maintain that gap – minus one in the worst case – in the second half, and they managed that well.
At one point they led 5-11; the Germans climbed back a bit but were unable to cut inside four by the end of this quarter.
Three goals in 43 seconds opened the fourth; Chania were still above the bar by one at 9-14, and Eleni Paterou added three more in the remaining time as Chania won by six at the end and passed the other two rivals with their first win on the last day.
Group D (Istanbul)
Galatasaray Zena (TUR) 10-7 ASD Brizz Nuoto (ITA)
Final rankings: 1. Galatasaray 6pts, 2. Mladost (CRO) 2pts, 3. Brizz 1pt
Hosts Galatasaray, who had already qualified, beat Brizz with a great fourth period performance which was big news for Mladost, who kept their second place – while the Italians were sent to the final classification tournament as they would have needed at least a shootout win to go through.
After four minutes of battling, the Italians hit two action goals in 34 seconds, but the Turks replied with a 3-0 run with Elizaveta Ivanova and Elvira Ermakova leading the charge.
Still, Anita Vitaliano brought Brizz back to even with a fine action shot two seconds before the buzzer.
Dorotea Spampinato put the Italians ahead early in the second, but later she was red carded which was a blow for Brizz though it was even more painful that they missed four six-on-fives in this quarter and that came back to haunt them when Dilara Yarayan ended the hosts’ struggles by hitting a great one from the perimeter for 4-4, 27 seconds before the half-time break.
Ivanova missed a penalty soon after the restart and the following minutes saw a defensive fight before Ecehan Temel broke the deadlock with 3:28 remaining.
Just 48 seconds later, Ermakova netted an action goal and after Brizz missed a crucial extra, Jessica Emerson converted one for the Turks to make it 7-4.
But just when Galatasaray seemed to have taken the upper hand, the Italians hit back from a counter, then by burying a penalty, both inside the last minute, to leave the decision to the final act.
The other Spampinato sister, Martina, was still in play and she sent the ball home from a dying six-on-five to level it up at 7-7, just 50 seconds into the fourth.
And they had another extra to take the lead but missed it and despite killing the next two woman-downs, Naz Ozdemir scored a crucial action goal with 3:16 to go.
And just 44 seconds later Ermakova netted an extra for 9-7, which was a blow for Brizz.
They were unable to recover from the shock, missed another woman-up while Ermakova hit a third one in a row 54 seconds from time.
It was a big 3-0 finish by Galatasaray in the last three minutes while the Italians were unable to score in the last seven.
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Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics
