MACEDONIA 15 BELGIUM 7

Macedonia ensured the Balkan nations dominated Group A with a professional victory over Belgium in the final game on the second day of action in the LEN European Nations Trophy at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.

Macedonia were never troubled after accelerating to a 3-1 first-quarter lead, with the advantage extended to seven by half-time.

Marko Basic scored twice to open the scoring for Macedonia, each time from man-ups when Belgium captain Tom Van Oost and then Stefen Van Tieghem were excluded. Risto Maljkovic extended the lead to three goals, before Belgium hit back after Nenad Petrovic was excluded. Cedric Grammens found the net from the resulting man-up to pull one goal back.

Michael De Boever opened the scoring in the second period, but Macedonia hit straight back when Van Tieghem was excluded for a second time and Marko Micic scored. Maljkovic scored again before Macedonia won a penalty for a foul by Sammy Claes. Micic was successful from the five-metre line. He scored again from a 6-on-5 before captain Saso Popovski scored twice, the first from a man-up, to open up a seven-goal margin at half-time.

Belgium scored first in the third period through Claes and reduced the deficit to five when Sava Isakovski fouled and a penalty was awarded. De Boever converted but Macedonia scored again moments later through Petrovic, who claimed his first goal of the contest. Basic completed his hat-trick and Vladimir Kreckovic extended the lead further with his first goal. Van Oost pulled one back with an extra-man goal as the period ended all-square with three each.

Kreckovic scored his second of the game at the start of the fourth, but Van Oost then scored his second with an outside shot. Maljkovic completed his hat-trick after Claes was excluded for a third time. Grammens scored at the other end for his second goal, but Basic had the final say with his fourth goal of the game.

Result: 15-7 (3-1; 6-1; 3-3; 3-2)

Macedonia: 1 Milos Urosevic, 2 Sava Isakovski, 3 Ivan Vuksanovic, 4 Risto Maljkovic (3 goals), 5 Nenad Ivanovski, 6 Saso Popovski (Capt, 2), 7 Marko Micic (3), 8 Vladimir Kreckovic (2), 9 Nenad Petrovic (1), 10 Marko Basic (4), 11 Radislav Kocovski, 12 Bobi Kuzmanovski, 13 Darko Stosic

Belgium: 1 Pieter Van Snick, 2 Stefen Van Tieghem, 3 Kevin Chavepeyer, 4 Thomas Delorge, 5 Niels Verhegge, 6 Ken De Wilde, 7 Samuel Gomez, 8 Michael De Boever (2 goals), 9 Cedric Grammens (2), 10 Tom Van Oost (Capt, 2), 11 Sammy Claes (1), 12 Niels Vanderlinden, 13 Michael Callens

FRANCE 12 GREAT BRITAIN 6

Reigning champions France reminded hosts Great Britain of the work that is required on their return to the European fold and ahead of London 2012 with a 12-6 victory on Day Two of the LEN European Nations Trophy at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.

France captain Frederic Audon – the tournament’s leading scorer after the first round of matches and the leading marksman in the 2006 FINA World League – took his tally in the competition to 16 with six goals in the match, including one in the second quarter when France did a 6-1 demolition job on their cross-Channel neighbours.

Lancaster’s Tom Curwen scored a hat-trick, including two in a much-improved second-half performance from Britain.

Audon opened the scoring after 38 seconds and scored again before a delicate lob earned him his hat-trick. Curwen pulled a goal back from the left wing when Jean Baptiste Favry was excluded.

Marc Amardeilh, centre forward Mickael Bodegas (two), Quentin Chipotel and Yann Vergeade also scored for France to win the quarter 6-1.

Audon scored his fourth when Chris Gilbertson was sent out for a foul on Bodegas early in the third quarter, before swiftly adding a fifth and sixth. Britain then scored three without reply, firstly when Scott Carpenter forced the ball under Jonathan Moriame’s arm. Andrew Squires and captain Craig Figes also scored.

Tom Curwen scored his second goal of the game with 2 minutes 20 seconds to go, breaking the fourth-quarter stalemate. Romain Blary scored his first goal of the game for France to cancel-out Curwen’s effort.

When Jablonski was excluded with 26.1 seconds remaining Eelco Uri called a time-out for Britain and Curwen claimed his third of the match for the resulting 6-on-5.

Result: 12-6 (2-0; 6-1; 3-3; 1-2)

France: 1 Jonathan Moriame, 2 Romain Blary (1 goal), 3 Arnaud Jablonski, 4 Frederic Audon (Capt, 6), 5 Yann Vergeade (1), 6 Remi Saudadier, 7 Mickael Bodegas (2), 8 Jean Baptiste Favry, 9 Yann Vernoux, 10 Yann Clay, 11 Marc Amardeilh (1), 12 Quentin Chipotel (1), 13 Soufien Riabi

Great Britain: 1 Ed Scott, 2 Sean Ryder, 3 Mark Banwell, 4 Scott Carpenter (1 goal), 5 Craig Figes (Capt, 1), 6 Andrew Squires (1), 7 Alex Parsonage, 8 Tom Curwen (3), 9 Rob Parker, 10 Adam Scholefield, 11 Chris Gilbertson, 12 Matthew Thresher, 13 Matthew Birch

IRELAND 3 UKRAINE 19

Ukraine trounced Ireland to earn their second victory of the competition following Sunday’s win over Poland.

Ireland remain pointless after two games and failed to breach the Ukraine defence in each of the first two periods, but a minor resurgence made the third quarter scores 2-2, before Ukraine stepped up again in the final period.

Vladyslav Soslovskiy and Yevgen Obedinskyy put Ukraine two goals ahead. Ireland had the chance to pull one back when the called a time-out following Volodymyr Voytenko’s exclusion. However, Ireland failed to convert the man-up and Ukraine added four further goals at the other end through Obedinskyy, Voytenko, Soslovskiy (two) and Vadym Kozlov.

In the second period Ireland continued to be punished for their poor discipline. When Kevin Thornton was sent out Denys Kolesnikov scored for the first time in the game. Ireland centre forward Jonathan Kirk was then sent out and Tymur Shylin then scored.  Obedinskyy completed his hat-trick to take Ukraine into double figures.

Kirk was then sent out for a second time and on his way out of the pool he impeded play, earning his third personal foul and a premature end to his game. Shylin stepped up to take the penalty, but shot before the referee’s whistle. Shylin made amends by adding an 11th goal before half-time.

Ireland stopped the barrage of goals in the third period and managed to score two of their own. Eoin Nolan opened the scoring for the quarter but Soslovskiy immediately scored another for Ukraine. But then Ireland went ahead for the quarter through Michael Kelleher. However, Ukraine scored from a man-up through Kolesnikov.

Nolan picked up his third personal foul early in the fourth, allowing Shylin to complete his hat-trick from the resulting 6-on-5. Obedinskyy added his fourth goal of the game. Igor Piperko got on the score-sheet when Jonathan Donnelly was sent-out. Ireland’s Graham Fogarty won a penalty, but Alan Fogarty saw his throw saved. Ukraine scored further goals through Roman Olefirenko, Serhiy Grishyn and Kozlov. Graham Fogarty replied for Ireland.

Result: 3-19 (0-7; 0-4; 2-2; 1-5)

Ireland:  1 Christopher Hodgkinson (Capt), 2 Alan Fogarty, 3 Eoin Nolan (1 goal), 4 Kevin Thornton, 5 Graham Fogarty (1 goal), 6 Patrick Lowery, 7 Darren McHugh, 8 Jonathan Donnelly, 9 Ciaran Walshe, 10 Jonathan Kirk, 11 Michael Kelleher (1), 12 Stephen Murphy, 13 Eoin Doyle

Ukraine: 1 Denys Volonchuk, 2 Kostyantyn Shevchenko (Capt), 3 Tymur Shylin (3 goals), 4 Vadym Kozlov (2), 5 Volodymyr Voytenko (1), 6 Roman Olefirenko (1), 7 Denys Kolesnikov (2), 8 Vladyslav Soslovskiy (4), 9 Sergiy Pantyukov, 10 Yevgen Obedinskyy (4), 11 Igor Piperko (1), 12 Serhiy Grishyn (1), 13 Petro Radivilov

MONTENEGRO 21 MALTA 2

Montenegro cruised to their second victory of the tournament with a comprehensive win over Malta.

Malta slumped to their first defeat of the competition and seemed overawed by Montenegro from the beginning.

By the half-time interval only two Montenegro field players had failed to score as the tournament favourites coasted to period scores of 5-1 and 8-0. They scored four in the third as they eased off the pace. However, they continued to pile on the pressure in the fourth with four further strikes.

Montenegro scored five unanswered goals in the first period through Vladimir Gojkovic, Aleksandar Ivovic, Nikola Janovic, Mladan Janovic and Predrag Jokic, with Malta’s Michele Stellini claiming a consolation.

Milos Scepanovic was unbeaten in the Montenegro goal in the second period, while his team-mates raced to the other end to score on eight occasions.

Jokic scored an extra-man goal to start the third period, with Boris Zlokovic and Vjekoslav Paskovic scoring before Malta’s Jurgen Borg got one. Jokic then claimed his second of the quarter and fourth of the match.

Gojkovic got his fourth at the start of the fourth, with Mladan Janovic, Ivovic and Nikola Janovic completed the scoring, with Zdavko Radic the second Montenegro goalkeeper to earn a shut out in the game.

Result: 21-2 (5-1; 8-0; 4-1; 4-0)

Montenegro: 1 Zdavko Radic, 2 Drasko Brguljan (1 goal), 3 Vjekoslav Paskovic (2), 4 Damjan DaniLovic, 5 Nikola Janovic (2), 6 Milan Ticic, 7 Mladan Janovic (3), 8 Veljko Uskokovic (1), 9 Aleksandar Ivovic (2), 10 Boris Zlokovic (2), 11 Vladimir Gojkovic (4), 12 Predrag Jokic (4), 13 Milos Scepanovic

Malta: 1 Josie Cachia, 2 Niki Lanzon, 3 Paul Fava, 4 Paul Privitera, 5 Mark Meli (1 goal), 6 John Soler, 7 Steve Camilleri, 8 Jurgen Borg (1), 9 Karl Montfort, 10 Matthew Zammit, 11 Clint Mercieca, 12 Michele Stellini, 13 Ian Bugeja

BELARUS 13 TURKEY 13

A dramatic final period fight-back from Belarus earned a draw against Turkey.

Belarus scored six goals in the fourth quarter to earn their first point of the competition in a match in which the teams were given 16 exclusions each. Siarhei Fralou starred, scoring five for Belarus, but he also received three personal fouls, while Turkey captain Halil Beskardesuer scored four and Emre Coskun three.

Ali Can Gagatay opened the scoring, with Fralou replying quickly for Belarus. Fralou added a second following Sezai Kiziltan’s exclusion, but Turkey levelled when Fralou was sent out and Coskun scored from the resulting man-up. Belarus went ahead for the first time when Ivan Kulakov converted a 6-on-5 chance, but Turkey were awarded a penalty with 24 seconds remaining and Beskardesuer scored.

Turkey took the lead through Aytag Yegin early in the second period and Coskun added his second. Belarus pulled one back through Armenaic Elizbaran but Can Guven scored to ensure a two-goal half-time lead.

Turkey scored four successive goals in the third to take a six-goal advantage, but Fralou pulled one back with a penalty. He added his fourth, but then Yegin added his second of the game. Aleksey Kuzmenko scored for Belarus to reduce the deficit to four.

Belarus scored three-in-a-row at the start of the fourth – with Turkey's Beskardesuer missing a penalty – to cut the gap to two, but then Hakan Hatipoglu scored his first of the game from an extra-man. Kuzmenko scored again to move within one and then Elizbaran finally brought Belarus level for the first time since the start of the second quarter.

In a dramatic final minute, the Belarus coach was red-carded for dissent and Beskardesuer scored a penalty, but Alexcei Zalugnyi equalised with his second goal of the period 55 seconds from time to level the match for Belarus.

Result: 13-13 (3-3; 1-3; 3-5; 6-2)

Belarus: 1. Mikhail Yazerski, 2 Ivan Kulakov (1 goal), 3 Aliaksandr Andrayuk, 4 Dzmitry Kulik, 5 Alexcei Zalugnyi (2), 6 Armenaic Elizbaran (2), 7 Aliaksandr Navumenka, 8 Dzmitry Vankevich (Capt), 9 Siarhei Fralou (5), 10 Aleksey Kuzmenko (2), 11 Uladzimir Martyniuk, 12 Vladimir Basic (1), 13 Kanstantsin Kavaleuski

Turkey: 1 Atila Sezer, 2 Ali Can Gagatay (1 goal), 3 Omer Yaman (1), 4 Anil Sonmez, 5 Ruso Yakimouig, 6 Hakan Hatipoglu (1), 7 Sezai Kiziltan, 8 Berk Gunkut, 9 Aytag Yegin (2), 10 Emre Coskun (3), 11 Halil Beskardesuer (Capt, 4), 12 Can Guven (1), 13 Tan Diptas

ISRAEL 6 POLAND 6

Israel and Poland could not be separated to give the LEN European Nations Trophy its first tie in the first game of Day Two at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.

The teams were level until Poland edged ahead by one goal in the third period, but Israel struck back with a single goal in the final quarter to earn a point. Tomasz Rozycki scored three times for Poland.

Three players – Ori Raz, of Israel, and Poland’s Adam Perka and Piotr Wojcik – were each excluded from the match for three major fouls as the referees dished-out 22 exclusions in the contest.

In the opening period Ayal Keren and Rozycki exchanged extra-man goals, before Marek Debski put Poland into the lead when Or Keren was excluded. Maoz Gaver equalised, but Israel missed the chance to extend their lead when they spurned two extra-man opportunities.

Israel nudged ahead when Navot Luria converted a man-up opportunity when Piotr Wojcik was sent out, but they missed further extra-man chances following the exclusions of Robert Sekula and Perka. Rozycki scored his second of the game with seven seconds go to ensure the match was tied at half-time.

One minute into the second half Israel’s Gil Lunliner and Itamar Schwartz were both excluded but Poland could not capitalise, and Israel scored at the other end through Ofir Golombek. Sekula levelled again before Poland had two players excluded and Dolev Koifman claimed his first goal of the match. Raz then picked up his third major which pushed Poland into the ascendancy and they scored through Rozycki and Rafal Wocik to take a 6-5 lead.

Gaver scored a second when Perka received his third major and Israel could have stolen three points when they were awarded a penalty, but Poland’s captain Michal Diakonow made a tremendous save from Amit Seker’s five-metre shot.

Result: 6-6 (2-2; 1-1; 2-3; 1-0)

Israel: 1 Itamar Inbar, 2 Shy Hemed, 3 Ofir Golombek (1 goal), 4 Navot Luria (1), 5 Maoz Gaver (2), 6 Or Keren, 7 Gil Lunliner, 8 Amit Seker (Capt), 9 Ayal Keren (1), 10 Ori Raz, 11 Dolev Koifman (1), 12 Itamar Schwartz, 13 Alex Malkis

Poland: 1 Michal Diakonow (Capt), 2 Marcin Scierwicki, 3 Piotr Michalski, 4 Adam Perka, 5 Marek Debski (1 goal), 6 Pawel Ulchurski, 7 Tomasz Rozycki (3), 8 Michal Bar, 9 Radoslaw Haraczko, 10 Robert Sekula (1), 11 Piotr Wojcik, 12 Wojciech Leszek, 13 Rafal Wocik (1)