The Olympiacos and the Ortigia Italian stars this Monday in Ostia (Italy) in the opening match of a Water Polo Champions League atypical conditioned by the Covid-19 pandemic that has forced to change its format to be able to dispute with the maximum sanitary guarantees.
The twelve participating teams, including the Zodiac Atlétic Barceloneta as the only Spanish team, they will play the first three days in Ostia, in the case of group A, and in Budapest, so it respects group B, where the Catalan team is framed.
The sanitary measures for the tournament to run normally will be extreme. Each team will have to pass three tests to detect the disease: one before leaving from their countries, another when they arrive at the venues and a third when their participation ends.
The teams will only leave the hotels to go to the pool to train or play the matches in individualized buses for each team, and no unauthorized person may enter their accommodation.
The Champions League will be played by twelve teams -four less than the previous year in which the competition could not be concluded- with the only novelty of the Italian Ortigia, which debuts in the group stage, and great absences such as those of the Szolnoki o el Mladost Zagreb, who failed to pass the qualifying phase.
In group A will be four European champions: the Italian Pro Recco trained by the Spanish Gaby hernandez, JUG Dubrovnik, Olympiacos and Spandau 04 Berlin, as well as current LEN Cup champions, Marseille, and Ortigia.
In group B, which will play the first three days in Budapest, they will play in addition to Zodiac Atlétic Barceloneta, the current European champion, the Ferencvaros, AN Brescia, Waspo Hannover, the Dinamo de tiflis and the Adriatic Herceg Novi Montenegrin.
The Spanish champion, in the group of contenders for the title, will debut on Tuesday against Waspo Hannover to play on Wednesday against Dinamo Tiflis and finish the first round of matches on Thursday against AN Brescia, one of the teams that have best strengthened this season.
The rest of the regular phase will be played under the same bubble format from March 1 to 5 (four days) and from April 19 to 22 (three days) at venues yet to be decided. The Eight Final will be played in Hannover (Germany) from June 3-5.
The top four finishers from group A and the top three from B in addition to Waspo Hannover, who automatically qualified for the Final Eight as organizer, will fight for a title that has had seven different champions in recent editions.
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