Two days ago Hotel Valamar hosted the group stage draw for water polo LEN Champions League and LEN Eurocup. Dubrovnik Jug CO landed in group B with the European champion Italian Pro Recco, Serbian Partizan, Turkish Galatasaray and two qualifiers. This year Jug was among the eight teams in the elite group who got to competition only by invitation. Except for them, Barceloneta, Olympiakos, Galatasaray, Partizan, Eger, Spandau and Pro Recco teams got the ‘wild card’.
Jug will start the competition in an entirely new composition. Namely, Maro Jokovic returned to his first club, the Italian Pro Recco, where he had spent three seasons earlier. Xavier García Gade, the Spanish national team player, accepted Jug’s invitation. Jug’s ranks have been completed with the Croatian midfielder Luka Loncar and center Felipe Perrone, captain of the Brazilian national team.
Aaron Younger left Jug and went to the Hungarian Szolnok. Miho Boskovic moved to Istra where he will spend next season playing for Primorje Erste Bank.
Jug was left also without Nikola Janovic, who returned to Montenegro, Canadian Nicolas Bicari, who returned to Marseille, and Ante Viskovic, who returned to Jadran from Split. VK Jug and Croatia’s water polo team stayed without Niksa Dobud, who received four years of suspension, which includes a ban from all sports competitions until April 15, 2019.
Here is the Euroleague rank:
Group A: Barceloneta, Eger, Olympiakos, Spandau, the two qualifiers
Group B: Pro Recco, Jug CO, Partizan, Galatasaray, the two qualifiers
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