Recco took revenge on FTC-Telekom, as the Euro Cup winners edged out the Champions League victors in their second and last game of the two giants’ joint American Tour. In a match filled with twists and turns, the Italians hit the winner after 15-15. Fradi won the first match after a shootout, so there’s no doubt that the Super Cup final on 8 October promises to be another outstanding water polo spectacle.

The matches between these two outstanding teams didn’t lack any drama, and playing with the new rules in a 25m field for the first time offered even more thrills, as Fradi and Recco both displayed their tremendous offensive power.

And their last game in Princeton lived up to all the hype and was the perfect showcase for European water polo. It was a 31-goal epic, where Recco’s reshaped team were in control for most of the time, especially in the second half, but the Hungarians always caught them up.

In the first half, it was balanced for 10 minutes, then Recco had a better spell and jumped to a two-goal lead and still led 8-7 at half-time.

Fradi managed to equalise for 9-9, but then Recco started dominating and staged a 3-0 rush. Then a hotly-debated physical clash fired up the players, especially those in the green caps, and their world championships silver medallist trio, Krisztian Manhercz, Szilard Jansik and Marton Vamos hit three in a row to lift the Magyars back to even.

Alvaro Granados then buried a penalty to retake the lead for Recco, but Dusan Mandic equalised right away in the fourth. Two newcomers, Max Irving and Luke Pavillard, hit two great ones from action, so Recco were up by two once more. Next came the new generation of Fradi, Vince Varga and Akos Nagy, whose blasts made it 15-15.

A huge battle ensued to score the winner, with both sides creating fine chances, but it was Andrea Fondelli whose rocket decided the contest 51 seconds from time.

Indeed, Recco did something that no other team have been able to do since April 2024 – beat FTC in regular time.

This just promises something big for 8 October, when they meet again in Budapest to play in the Super Cup Final.

Pro Recco v FTC-Telekom 16-15 (4-4, 4-3, 5-5, 3-3)

Scorers

Recco: Granados 4, Irving 3, Pavillard 3, Fondelli 2, Di Fulvio, Durik, Buric, Cannella

FTC: Manhercz 4, Varga 3, Jansik 2, Vamos 2, Argyropoulos, Mandic, Akos Nagy, De Toro

Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics