This Saturday evening, Olympic Nice Swimming hosted OSC Budapest at the Jean Bouin pool for their second Champions League match. Samuel Nardon’s men were defeated 13-6 by a more experienced, solid, and efficient Hungarian team.
The beginning of the match favored the Hungarians. Budapest opened the scoring after 1:30 of play. On the Nice side, it was a difficult start offensively. The Hungarians took advantage to score a second goal (2:30). The team from Nice responded after 3 minutes of play (Monneret).
Despite Garsau’s save on a penalty, Budapest regained a 2-goal lead, 3-1. They even took a 3-goal lead after 5:30 of play thanks to Batori’s second personal goal (5:30). Izdinsky kept the Nice team in the game. It was 4-2 for the Hungarians at the end of the first quarter.
At the start of the second period, Nice closed the gap thanks to Monneret’s second goal. Budapest responded well and regained a 2-goal lead (3-5 at 2:30). The Nice team played better at the start of the second period. They defended well and logically scored a 4th goal through Bruyère (4-5 at 3:30).
The Hungarians once again established a two-goal lead thanks to Salamon’s second goal. But ONN closed the gap immediately afterward (5-6 at 5:30). Nice once again lacked offensive and defensive efficiency. Salamon then scored his third goal of the evening, allowing his team to regain a 2-goal lead (5-7 at 6 minutes). Thanks to Monneret, who also scored his third goal, the Nice water polo team came within a short distance of Budapest just before halftime.
7-6 for Budapest at the break
Two minutes into the third period, Budapest scored an 8th goal, with Batori marking his third of the night as well (6-8). Nice was clearly lacking in efficiency and could not catch up with the score at the start of the third quarter (6-8 at 4 minutes of play). Garsau, with several saves, helped Nice stay in the game. However, the Hungarians regained a 3-goal lead and were ahead 9-6 after 5 minutes of play in the third period. Nice struggled offensively but could rely on their goalkeeper to prevent the score from worsening. By the end of the third quarter, during which they did not score, Samuel Nardon’s men were down 9-6.
Right at the start of the fourth quarter, the Hungarian water polo team scored a 10th goal and took a 4-goal lead over Nice (6-10). This was the largest margin since the beginning of the match. Then, Budapest took a 5-goal lead after 2 minutes of play in the fourth period (6-11). Nice was completely off and conceded a 12th, then a 13th goal (6-13 at 5 minutes). Nice finally scored their first goal of the second half, thanks to Monneret’s 4th goal (7-13 at 6 minutes)!
The score did not change further (7-13). Nice suffered their second defeat in two Champions League matches. The learning curve continues for the young team led by Samuel Nardon.
