PORTO – The two seeded teams in the European Cup for club teams, taking place this weekend in Porto, will face tough opponents in the finals. FC Porto and Varde BK were rewarded in advance with a ticket to the finals with 8 teams. The teams that advanced to the top field via the preliminary rounds are Göztepe Spor Kulübü from Turkey, Soissons from France, Andernos from France, Cues&Darts from the Netherlands, Mister 100 from Belgium and, as the best runner-up, Team Eekhoorn from the Netherlands.
This outcome was particularly surprising for the Dutch teams and for the Belgians of Mister 100. The best scores were achieved by the French team Soissons, who scored 1.524 on average. Göztepe Spor Kulübü emerged from the five-team group with the maximum match points and 1.373.
The matches for Saturday with the best 8 in groups of 4 (Portuguese time, one hour earlier than in Western Europe):
9.30:
Varde BK-Team Eekhoorn
Göztepe-Andernos
11.45:
FC Porto-Mr. 100 Lier
Soissons-Cues&Darts
The groups:
Varde, Eekhoorn, Göztepe and Andernos
FC Porto, Mr. 100, Soissons, Cues&Darts
Göztepe won the crucial match against Team Eekhoorn from the Netherlands with the maximum score: 8-0. Tayfun Tasdemir beat Nick Polychronopoulos 40-19 in 19, Tolgahan Kiraz beat Peter Ceulemans 40-31 in 25, Berkay Karakurt bested Frans van Kuyk 40-34 in 35 and Tarik Yavuz bested Jerry Hermans 40-32 in 29.
The most notable matches included Frédéric Caudron's (Soissons) victory over Glenn Hofman, in which the Belgian already completely knocked out his opponent 20-0 in 2 innings. The final score was 40-29 in 18. Also notable was the match between Huub Wilkowski and Martin Horn. The Dutchman from Cues&Darts made a run of 15 in the fourth inning, the highest in the tournament so far. The match ended in a draw, which meant that Cues&Darts ultimately won 5-3 and became group winner.
Frédéric Caudron with 1,739 and Jérémy Bury with 1,714 were the best players in terms of average in the preliminary rounds.
Mister 100 from Lier, playing in the Belgian league with Peter, Kurt and Bart Ceulemans, but in the European Cup with a kind of second team, was the sensation in the preliminary rounds. The Belgians played with Marc Celen, Erwin Hens, Bart van Hove and Philip Coenen and defeated their three opponents: Leça from Portugal, Weywiesen from Germany and Billiard's Cafe from Italy. Mister 100 won its last match against the Germans from Weywiesen 7-1, with Marc Celen beating Sam van Etten 40-30 in 33 and Erwin Hens drawing with Amir Ibraimov 40-40 in 45. Bart van Hove beat former German champion Christian Rudolph 40-31 in 34 and Philip Coenen beat Markus Wirgs 40-24 in 35. Team captain Marc Celen said: ‘We are very happy with the qualification, which we achieved against the main favorites Weywiesen, because we all played our best game when it mattered.’
Andernos and Mostoles competed in the final session of the preliminary rounds for the last qualification spot. The French shone with the maximum score: 8-0. Marco Zanetti defeated Ruben Legazpi 40-22 in 24, Roland Forthomme defeated Fernandez 40-27 in 35, Gwendal Maréchal beat Alfonso Legazpi 40-26 in 25 and Jérôme Barbeillon beat Anson 40-24 in 29.
Cues&Darts won the decisive match against Pottendorfer, in which Sameh Sidhom was the only Austrian to beat Jef Philipoom (40-28 in 25). The three other players from Cues&Darts made up for the victory with wins by Therese Klompenhouwer (40-34 in 28) and Joey de Kok (40-27 in 48) and a draw by Huub Wilkowski against Martin Horn: 40-40 in 23.
Marc Celen with his team Mister 100 the sensation
Tayfun Tasdemir in his match vs Polychronopoulos
Huub. Wilkowski from Cues&Darts, made a 15 run, the best in the prerounds
The top positions and the winners:
Group A:
1 Andernos 6-1.293-10
2 Mostoles 4-0.940-10
Group B:
1 Cues&Darts 5-1.124-15
2 Pottendorfer 4-1.187-11
Group C:
1 Mister 100 6-0.805-7
2 BC Weywiesen 4-0.869-8
Group D:
1 Göztepe Spor Kulübu 8-1.373-12
2 Team Eekhoorn 6-1.291-11
Group E:
Soissons 6-1.524-12
BC Neusiedl 4-1.082-11
