Jadran ST - VK Partizan 10:11 (Triglav League)

As they say, in the first half of the match we demonstrated how to play water polo. Then in the second half we demonstrated how not to.

Quoting the witty remark of a fellow Partizan-fan: it could have been with more goals, but we didn’t want to trash the opponent.
We do have heart.

The start was phenomenal. We got the ball at first and immediately scored, with Gilen’s distant shot (0:1). Macedonians equalized, but Gogov shot us back on the lead from a counter-attack. He dribbled himself alone to the opponents goalmouth, a defender desperately tried to catch him, but he was behind the player of Partizan with at least half meter (1:2). Rističević saved everything, rolling down the shutters. Nobody could score to him, not even giving him a nasty look. Not even when the opponent was in power play.
We scored from another counter-attack with Radojević’s shot (1:3). Soon before the end of the first quarter he threw another goal, we could enter the next period with 1:4.
The second quarter was even better than the first. Jadran tried with an attack, but we again got the ball, started a counter-attack and Andrejević scored (1:5). Another counter-attack, another Gogov-goal (1:6). At this point the home team also scored (2:6), our reply was Radojević (2:7). The Macedonian team took advantage of a power play (3:7), later Andrejević did so, too (3:8). Right before the end of the first half Rističević had another giant save while the opponent was in power play.
We had a five-goal advantage. And then, after the break we showed how to waste this advantage and how to sweat blood for the victory.

For the team’s defense: key players got a day off for today. Mandić and Subotić played yesterday for the Serbian national team against Russia, before that they humiliated Galatasaray. So now we had to send those players into battle who had less routine.

Jadran scored two quick goals (5:8), as for us, we could show off only with Gilen’s shot (5:9). Both teams missed out a lot of chances. At the end of the period the home team scored another goal (6:9), from our side Lazić threw one just before the end buzz (6:10).
The last quarter brought a similar amount of missed chances, and it paid off, as it did a zillion times before. Jadran reduced their difference to only 3 goals, when Stojanović threw a score (7:11). At this point we were done. I still suggest though to engild the hands of Rističević, we can thank him and his excellence (among others) that we could finally win this match.