A ferocious third-quarter comeback led by former USC superstar ​Kostas Genidounias brought the Olympiacos Piraeus side level with Jug Dubrovnik after the Croatians raced to a five-goal lead on Thursday in Budapest, Hungary. But Jug responded with its own rally to earn an 11-8 victory and advance to the LEN Champions League semifinals.

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In a game many expected to be more of a defensive struggle, Olympiacos appeared outmatched from the start against Jug's offensive onslaught and gave up two key penalties, Jug took a 7-2 lead heading into the second half, and the Greeks seemed destined to go out of the Final Six on the first day, one year after landing in the championship spot.

But Olympiacos found its form in the third quarter, scoring five times to bring the game even at seven goals each, a comeback that had the Budapest crowd energized after a subdued start. A timeout called by Jug coach ​Vjekoslav Kobescak paid quick dividends with three minutes remaining in the quarter. The Croatian side scored three times in just over two minutes and extended its lead to 10-7, one Olympiacos could not overcome.

Jug's massive ​Josip Vrlić​ scored twice from center forward, and the Greeks had no real response. Meanwhile, goalie ​Josip Pavić​ and the Jug defense held Olympiacos to a single goal for the remainder of the match, turning away a penalty shot to further demoralize the Greeks.

With the win, Jug will continue the defense of its 2016 championship against Italian champion Pro Recco in the semifinals.
 

	1	2	3	4	TOTAL
Jug	3	4	3	1	11
Olympiacos	1	1	5	1	8

Exclusions: Jug 8, Olympiacos 6.
 
​​Jug: Bijac (9 saves), Macan, Fatovic 1, Loncar, Jokovic 1, Garcia Gadea 2, Markovic 2, Pavlicevic, Vrlic 2, Perrone Rocha 2, Benic, Obradovic 1, Popadic.
 
​​Olympiacos: Pavic (4 saves), Mylonakis 1, Delakas, Genidounias 4, Fountulis 1, Buslje, Pontiekas, Ntoskas, Mourikis, Kolomvos 2, Janovic, Espanol, Galanopoulos.

Eger 6, Brescia 4

If the first match produced more offense than expected, the second between Brescia and Eger became a tense slog between strong defenses. Eger emerged victorious after pulling away with two goals in the final period against the Italians, who played minus a player for four minutes after a brutality foul sent off ​Petar Muslim.

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The teams remained tightly matched for most of the struggle and exchanged leads through the first three tense quarters, which ended at four goals each. Eger found its form 2 1/2 minutes into the final stanza.​ Boris Vapenski​ put the Hungarians up by one with a demoralizing score from center-forward followed by a man-up goal by ​Balazs Harai​ just over a minute later. That tally effectively ended the match even before Muslim's four-minute exclusion, during which Brescia held the Hungarian side scoreless to keep the goal difference at two.

Eger goalie ​Branislav Mitrivoc​ had a stellar outing, turning away four penalty shots and ended the match with nearly a 70 percent save figure.

Eger moves on to play Szolnok in the all-Hungarian semis on Friday.
 

	1	2	3	4	TOTAL
Eger	2	1	1	2	6
Brescia	2	1	1	0	4

​​Exclusions: Eger 9, Brescia 9 plus one exclusion with substitution. Penalty shots: Eger 1 (0).
 
​​Eger: Mitrovic (9 saves), Angyal, Decker, Cuckovic 1, Hosnyanszky, Lorincz, Cuk, Kovacs 1, Erdelyi, Vapenski 1, Bedo, Harai 3, Csiszar.
 
​​Brescia: Del Luongo (7 saves), Guerrato, C. Presciutti, Randjelovic, Paskovic 1, Manzi, Muslim 1, Nora 2, N. Presciutti, Bertoli, Ubovic, Napolitano, Morretti.
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