2014–15 LEN Champions League explained

2014–15 LEN Champions League
League:LEN Champions League
Sport:Water Polo
Duration:26 September 2014 to
30 May 2015
No Of Teams:12 (preliminary round)
26 (total)
Mvp: Sandro Sukno (Primorje Rijeka)
Top Scorer: Sandro Sukno 34 goals (Primorje Rijeka)
Playoffs:Final Six
Playoffs Link:2014–15 LEN Champions League#Final Six (Barcelona)
Finals Champ: Pro Recco (8th title)
Finals Mvp: Felipe Perrone (CN Atlètic-Barceloneta)
Seasonslist:LEN Champions League
Seasonslistnames:Champions League
Prevseason Link:2013–14 LEN Champions League
Prevseason Year:2013–14
Nextseason Link:2015–16 LEN Champions League
Nextseason Year:2015−16

The 2014–15 LEN Champions League was the 52nd edition of LEN's premier competition for men's water polo clubs. It ran from 26 September 2014 to 30 May 2015, and it is contested by 26 teams from 13 countries. The Final Six (quarterfinals, semifinals, final, and third place game) took place on May 28 and May 30 in Barcelona.

Overview

Team allocation

See also: 2014–15 LEN Champions League squads.

8 teams are directly qualified for the preliminary round.

Preliminary round
Jug Spandau 04 Eger Partizan
Atlètic-BarcelonetaTH Olympiacos Brescia Galatasaray
Qualification round II
Primorje Szolnok Crvena Zvezda İstanbul YİK
Duisburg Pro Recco
Qualification round I
Mladost Ligamus Tbilisi Posillipo Spartak Volgograd
Montpellier Waspo 98 Hannover Jadran Sintez Kazan
Marseille Orvosegyetem Oradea Radnički Kragujevac

Round and draw dates

The schedule of the competition is as follows.[1]

PhaseRoundFirst legSecond leg
QualifyingQualification round I26–28 September 2014
Qualification round II17–19 October 2014
Qualification round III
(Play-off round)
29 October 201412 November 2014
Preliminary roundMatchday 129 November 2014
Matchday 217 December 2014
Matchday 314 January 2015
Matchday 428 January 2015
Matchday 511 February 2015
Matchday 64 March 2015
Matchday 725 March 2015
Matchday 88 April 2015
Matchday 918 April 2015
Matchday 102 May 2015
Final 6
(Barcelona)
Quarter-finals28 May 2015 at Piscines Picornell
Semi-finals29 May 2015 at Piscines Picornell
Final30 May 2015 at Piscines Picornell

Qualifying rounds

Qualification round I

Twelve teams will take part in the Qualification round I. They will be drawn into two groups of six teams, whose played on 26–28 September 2014. Top 5 teams of each group advance to qualification round II. Teams finishing 6th continue in 2014–15 LEN Euro Cup qualification.

Group A

CN Marseille has the right to organize the tournament.

Group B

Jadran Herceg Novi has the right to organize the tournament.

Qualification round II

Sixteen teams will take part in the Qualification round II. These clubs will form four groups of four and will have round robin tournaments at four host cities on 17–19 October. Top 2 of these groups advance to play-off (qualification round 3), Teams finishing 3rd, 4th continue in 2014–15 LEN Euro Cup qualification.

Group C

Waspo Hannover has the right to organize the tournament.

Group D

Orvosegyetem SC has the right to organize the tournament.

Group E

HAVK Mladost has the right to organize the tournament.

Group F

Radnički Kragujevac has the right to organize the tournament.

Qualification round III

Key to colors
Seeded in qualification round III draw
Unseeded in qualification round III draw
Groupwidth=175Winnerswidth=175Runners-up
C Pro Recco Crvena Zvezda
D Orvosegyetem Oradea
E Primorje Mladost
F Radnički Kragujevac Szolnok

Eight teams will take part in the Qualification round III. These teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis. The mechanism of the draws for each round was as follow:

The first legs were played on 29 October, and the second legs were played on 12 November 2014.

Preliminary round

See main article: 2014–15 LEN Champions League preliminary round.

The regular season was played between 29 November 2014 and 2 May 2015.If teams are level on record at the end of the preliminary round, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:

  1. Head-to-head record.
  2. Head-to-head point differential.
  3. Point differential during the Regular Season.
  4. Points scored during the regular season.
  5. Sum of quotients of points scored and points allowed in each Regular Season match.

In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The matchdays were 29 November, 17 December 2014, 14 January, 28 January, 11 February, 4 March, 25 March, 8 April, 18 April, and 2 May 2015. The top three teams advanced to the final six.

The Final Six (quarterfinals, semifinals, third place game and final) will be played in Barcelona, Spain from 28 to 30 May 2015.

Key to colors
    Top three places in each group advance to Final Six

Group B

Final Six (Barcelona)

Piscines Bernat Picornell, Barcelona, Spain

Quarter-finals----

5th place

Semi-finals----

Third place

Final

Stefano Tempesti, Andrija Prlainović, Maro Joković, Pietro Figlioli, Alex Giorgetti, Duško Pijetlović, Massimo Giacoppo, Matteo Aicardi, Francesco Di Fulvio, Filip Filipović, Aleksandar Ivović, Niccolò Gitto, Giacomo Pastorino
Head coach
Igor Milanović

Final standings

width=25!width=220Team
Pro Recco
Primorje
Atlètic-Barceloneta
Jug Dubrovnik
Eger
Szolnok

Awards

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: LEN Club Competition Programme Season 2014/2015.