Italy 8, Croatia 6
Italy took down Croatia, 8-6, highlighting an action-packed Day 1 of the FINA Men’s Water Polo World League European finals Thursday in Montenegro.
The Italians scored four goals in the second quarter to break an early 1-1 tie. They added two more in the third, taking a 7-2 lead at the final break that they never relinquished. Croatia tallied four unanswered goals in the final quarter, but the comeback proved to be too little, too late.
“I don’t remember an easy game with Croatia in my life, in the 40 years we have been playing against (them),” said Italy’s coach, Sandro Campagna. “What do I feel? I feel good, but not because of the result. This is the last thing I am caring about. This is the beginning; the road is long.”
Giacomo Cannella led Italy with three goals, hitting twice from the deep left and once from the top. Gonzalo Echenique added two goals for Italy. Croatia scored all six of its goals on the extra-man attack. Croatia’s man-down defense was on full display, limiting Italy to four of 15 chances on the extra-man attack. The loss means that Croatia cannot qualify for the Super Final in France in late July.
“We are not unhappy with everything we saw today,” said Croatia’s coach, Jure Marelja. “We saw good defense in our team, we saw a few good moves, but in the end, we cannot be satisfied with a loss.”
Croatia will try to bounce back Friday against France while Italy takes on defending Super Final champion Montenegro in the semifinals. The top three teams advance to the Super Final alongside host France.
Serbia 13, Greece 6
In a rematch of the recent Olympic finals, the gold medal-winning Serbians continued their dominance and cruised past Greece, 13-6. It was the only blowout of the day as the three other matchups were decided by two goals or fewer. Greece trailed just 5-4 midway through the match before a 13-minute scoreless stretch allowed Serbia to pull away for good.
Serbia was lethal on the extra-man attack, converting four of nine opportunities. Dusan Mandic led Serbia with four goals while Dimitrios Skoumpakis and Konstantinos Genidounias notched two goals apiece for a shorthanded Greece squad playing without regular captain Ioannis Fountoulis and fellow veteran stars Marios Kapotsis and Angelos Vlachopoulos.
“They were without three key players and we could feel that in the pool,” Mandic said. “We can be very satisfied how we played defense. Tonight, our goalkeepers, both of them, played excellent.”
Serbia takes on Spain in the last semifinal of the day Friday while Greece faces Hungary in the first semifinal of the day.
Montenegro 11, France 10
Montenegro overcame an early 5-2 deficit, survived a six-goal performance from French star Mehdi Marzouki, and escaped with a thrilling 11-10 victory in front of its home crowd in Podgorica, Montenegro.
The back-and-forth affair began with Montenegro jumping out to an early 2-1 advantage before France rattled off three goals in two minutes to take a 4-2 lead. Montenegro evened the score by halftime, but Marzouki put France ahead again in the third quarter. Montenegro scored twice to reclaim the lead only to have Marzouki answer with another game-tying goal.
This time, Montenegro responded with three unanswered goals to reclaim a 10-7 lead a minute into the final quarter. Three goals by France down the stretch – including two by Marzouki in the last 90 seconds – weren’t quite enough to force a potential tiebreaker shootout. Captain Ugo Crousillat chipped in two goals for France while Marko Petkovic scored a hat-trick for Montenegro, including two from extra.
“We played a really tough game against the team of France,” said Montenegrin standout Dejan Lazovic. “They’re so in control; they’re such an amazing team that managed to beat Spain just a month ago. It was a really tough match. We managed to beat them in front of our fans and our supporters remain happy now. It was really an amazing feeling to play in our home pool. Many people didn’t even manage to get tickets. It was very tough and very beautiful to play in front of our crowd. Now, we’re less under pressure after we managed to beat France. Now, the games we play will be against favorites, so I think for us we will play much better without the pressure.”
Despite the loss, France still qualifies for the Super Final in Strasbourg, France, by way of being the hosts.
Spain 10, Hungary 9
Olympic bronze medalist Hungary blew a fourth-quarter lead in a 10-9 loss to Spain.
6-foot-8 Hungarian lefty Marton Vamos led all scorers with four goals and Alberto Munarriz added three goals for Spain, including the game-winner at 3:19.
Hungary climbed back from an early 4-1 deficit after one quarter, outscoring Spain 5-1 in the second quarter to take a 6-5 edge at the half and 8-7 lead entering the final quarter. Hungary was ahead 9-8 two minutes into the final quarter before Spain’s late rally.
Hungary struggled with its extra-man attack, converting just two of nine chances. Spain capitalized on four of 15 such opportunities.
Friday’s second round semifinals
Italy 9, Montenegro 7
Spain vs. Serbia
5h-8th place bracket
Hungary 14, Greece 13
Croatia 13, France 12
Finals
Saturday, 11 a.m. EST