Sunday 9th UPDATE:
In the first semifinal on Sunday morning the Turkish team of FBN Tekstil SK won against the Spanish representative of CB Castalla. The score was a 6-2 in favor of the team from Turkiye. Jimenez won the only match for the Spanish team against Tasdemir. Karakurt, Salman and Tuzul won for their team.
The second semifinal was won by FC Porto against the Danes of Varde by 5-3. Jaspers and Merckx draw their match then Blomdahl and Soares won for the Portuguese and Andersen for the Danes.
So, again, FC Porto and FBN Tekstil met in the final for what looked like a revenge on the previous edition. The score was exactly equal at the end of the regular matches: 4-4 with victories of Jaspers and Soares on one side, Karakurt and Salman on the other. Like in 2022 a penalties session was needed to decide the winner. On table 4 Soares and Tuzul both missed. Then Costa made 3 and Salman 2. On table 2 Blomdahl missed and Karakurt made 2. The last penalty on table one was decisive, Jaspers scored 3 times and Tasdemir only 1. The crowd exploded in the venue full of fans and supporters. FC Porto is confirmed champion of the Coupe d'Europe 3-cushion 2023. FBN Tekstil take the silver medal. Bronze for Varde BK and CB Castalla.
Saturday 8th UPDATE!
The final round reserved some surprises for billiard fans.
The 4 spots in the semifinals were at stake until the last matches of this long Saturday.
In group BB the favorite French team of Andernos that led the qualification ranking lost by 8-0 a decisive match against the Danes of Varde, thus losing a big chance to be qualified in favor of the Danish team. In the last match of this group the Turks of Goztepe and Spanish of Castalla played for the second spot, but Castalla only needed a draw and they succeded to catch it thus qualifying as runners up.
In group AA FC Porto and FBN Tekstil, both favorites, played a last decisive match for FC Porto. The Turks were in a better position and already sure to qualify thanks to previous victories against Mister 100 and Billiard Cafè, whatever the result of the last match. FC Porto needed at least one individual match point otherwise the Belgian team of Mister 100 could have taken an advantage from this situation and be qualified in the place of the home team. In a thrilling ending FBN Tekstil won by 6-2, it was Dick Jaspers to win his match for Porto against Tayfun Tasdemir thus granting to his team the pass for the semifinals as runners up.
Final group standings and semifinals of Sunday 9th.
Group AA:
Winner: FBN Tekstil
Runner up: FC Porto
Group BB:
Winner: Varde BK
Runner up: CB Castalla
Semifinal 1 (AA1-BB2): 9:30 FBN Tekstil - CB Castalla
Semifinal 2 (BB1-AA2): 11:30 Varde BK - FC Porto
Friday, July 8th.
The final stage of the Coupe d'Europe 3-Cushion 2023 will start tomorrow in the FC Porto Billiard Academy.
The eight qualified teams will play two final groups of 4.
Best two teams of each group will then qualify for the semifinals that will take place on Sunday 9th.
This are the two groups:
GROUP AA:
FC Porto (Portugal - Title Holder)
FBN Tekstil (Turkiye)
Billiards Cafè A (Italy)
Mister 100 Lier (Belgium)
GROUP BB:
BC Andernos (France)
BK Varde (Denmark)
Goztepe BK (Turkiye)
BC Castalla (Spain)
Find the results on the information page.
Kozoom is broadcasting the event
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Photo credits: FC PORTO
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