3-Cushion
SCHILTIGHEIM -,,Diek Zjaspers'', as he was announced by the speaker with his beautiful French accent, made his entrance in the Agipi arena where he already could celebrate so many successes. Dani Sánchez could in the same billiard room almost never grow above himself and again was not on his best in his first performance.
Eddy Merckx, the world record holder match average, led the Clichy team to its second draw and Eddy Leppens showed that he's even in a lesser period a termendous good billiard player.
The showdown in Group B of the European Cup tonight (18.00) must bring the decision about which teams will enter tomorrows semi finals. Two draws so far in this group haven't bring the separation. Clichy Montmartre and Gruner Tisch Buer shared the points in the first match, FC Porto and Clichy played a draw in the second session.
The French team of Clichy has finished his group matches and has two match points out of two matches. With FC Porto-Gruner Tisch still to play, still anything can happen.
FC Porto couldn't make clear in his first appearance that the team is ready for the final stage, although the world champion, Dick Jaspers, defeated Eddy Merckx with a comfortable score (40-19 in 21 innings) and Manuel Rui Costa was superior in a bad match against Jean Reverchon. The French player couldn't show his first-day's form and lost without any chance in 43 innings.
Richard Bitalis, however, tied the match for Clichy before the break with a win against Joao Ferreira and in the second part Eddy Leppens flaunted with a great start and beat Dani Sánchez 40-22 in 23 innings.
The Spaniard once again underlined his love-hate relationship with the Agipi arena, where he rarely shines on the level that makes him to a world class player.
Eddy Leppens started not that good on the first day, but recovered with a strong, tactical game, showing his high class in the runs with which he put his opponent quickly on a backlog (16-4, 21-6, 32-17). The Belgian finished the job by a significant margin.