PORTO - The tournament for the European Cup for teams in Porto is two days and 20 matches underway in the five groups of four. The final preliminary rounds are played today, Friday, from 10.00, decisive for the lineup in the final groups. FC Porto, the title holder, will enter the tournament on Saturday in its own billiard arena. On that final day, the two groups of four teams are formed to play with FC Porto for the European Cup.
What has happened so far in two days of preliminary rounds? Twenty teams have entered the battle in five groups of four. That means six matches in each group, so a total of five groups to play six matches is 30 overall. Of these schedule, 20 have been played in the first two days. Today another 10 are scheduled to decide the final standings.
Most notable so far are the leading roles for the teams leading by 4 match points. These are Cues&Darts from the Netherlands in Group A, Varde BK from Denmark in Group B, FBN Tekstil from Turkey in Group C, Billard Club Andernosien from France in Group D and BK Grøndal from Denmark in Group E. But also Saint Quentin from France in Group A and Palma from Spain in Group B have 4 match points.
Another highlight was the high run of Turkish player Erkan Akti, who in his match against Italian Andrea Bitetti made a 17 for a final score of 40-17 in 21 innings. That was the highest match score to date. Peter Ceulemans, who missed the first match for his Mr. 100 team, won in his second vs Martin Horn in the best match so far: 40-14 in 12 innings, average 3.333, run of 11. Mister 100 (Peter Ceulemans, Kurt Ceulemans, Jerry Hermans and Bart Ceulemans) won that match against BC International 8-0, but had lost the first match in the group stage.
Other notable matches were Ruben Legazpi's (Cues&Darts) victory over Thomas Broux (Herstal) 40-23 in 16, Berkay Karakurt against Jerry Hermans 40-20 in 16, Roland Forthomme against Turk Ucar 40-16 in 17, Glenn Hofman (Billiards Cafe from Italy) against Joseba Escribano 40-21 in 19 (run 13) and Eddy Merckx against Andreas Efler 40-23 in 20. Andernos had a strong win against Pottendorfer 8-0 in which Roland Forthomme won in 20 innings, Marco Zanetti and Jérôme Barbeillon in 24 and Gwendal Maréchal in 50 innings.
The best chances to qualify have on the final day:
- FBN Tekstil 4-1.367-9
- Cues&Darts 4-1.203-10
- Varde BK 4-1.232-9
- BC Andernosien 4-1.367-10
- BK Grøndal 4-0.818-11
- As Billar Palma 4-1.074-9
- Saint Quentin 4-1.075-8