Cuban polo player Raydel Martínez participates in the Bundesliga Herren final in Austria

November 9, 2020

In a tight and attractive match, Cuban Raydel Martínez and París Lodron Salzburg Wasserball prevailed, in a penalty shootout, against defending champion WBC Tirol in the semifinal of the Austrian Bundesliga Herren.

The Salzburg team came out with the objective of winning the clash, led by Hungarian player-coach Szrgyán Zsivánovity (8 goals), and advancing to the final in just two games, but the Tyrolean side would not make it easy and maintained dominance of the match until almost the end.

Just five seconds from the final whistle, with the score at 11-12, the Hungarian received a daring pass from Austrian Nemanja Manojlovic and turned around to score the tying goal that would extend the match to a penalty shootout.

Goalkeeper Salkan Samardzic, a member of the Austrian national team, became the hero of Salzburg, as from the five-meter line he allowed only five balls to pass and his teammates scored six, enough to put París Lodron in the final of the Bundesliga Herren.

Cuban Raydel Martínez was unable to contribute goals during regulation time for his team's cause, but provided sufficient support to his teammates from defense to guarantee the victory.

"It was a very tight match where we had to come from behind the whole time and take the clash to penalties, where we knew we were going to win because we have the goalkeeper of the Austrian national team. Today I came up empty on offense, I couldn't do much, but the important thing was to get the victory and we achieved the objective," said the Camagüey water polo player exclusively for Cubahora via Whatsapp.

Now, París Lodron Salzburg Wasserball awaits the winner of the other semifinal between the best team of the season, ASV Wien, and SPG Innsbruck/Dornbirn, to dispute the title of the Bundesliga Herren.