Croatia win shoot-out thriller against Spain as Men’s U18 European Water Polo Championships start

The opening day at the Men’s U18 European Water Polo Championships in Oradea produced a couple of wild battles. The evening featured a series of thrillers as Montenegro stunned Serbia and Croatia edged out Spain in a game of twists and turns. Romania and Turkiye also contributed to the excitement as the hosts lost by a single goal.

Group A&B: Italy, Hungary, Montenegro and Croatia start with wins

Italy and Greece began the series of big matches at the ‘high end’ of the elite event in Group A. Though the Greeks took the lead after three minutes, Italy hit back with four connecting goals still in the first period, forcing their rivals into a chasing game. And the Italians managed that pretty well as they added more in the second to go 3-8 up by halftime. Though the Greeks,fuelled by a couple of spectacular shots from their captain Dimitrios Chatzis – who finished the afternoon with 5 hits – launched surges from time to time they could never cut inside three goals. The Italians defended well and scored some great action goals to start the Championship with a victory.

Photos credit: Aniko Kovacs/European Aquatics

Hungary had to dig deep to down the Netherlands. Though the Dutch are usually outside the top flight, here they proved that they were up to the challenge. They caused some headaches to the Magyars with their hard-pressing game and a series of fine shots from the perimeter also caused some damage. Still, individual skills and man-down defence made the difference as the Hungarians kept the Dutch 3 for 14 (0 for 7 in the second half) in extras. In front, Mor Benedek – son of Hungary’s late legend, Tibor – and Csanad Bella led their charge as they expanded the gap quarter by quarter. The Netherlands last surge cut the Hungarians’ lead to 12-10 early in the fourth but Bella, who also delivered three penalties in the game, hit his third from the centre to kill their rivals’ momentum right away and by adding two more, the favourites sailed away with the victory.

Group B ties came next, opening with another classic between Serbia and Montenegro. For a while, it was the usual even match as even 17-18 years old boys can play a hard physical match. The Serbs led at the beginning, but after 4-3 they lost their composure in offence and their arch-rivals felt it was their time. Strahinja Gojkovic’s magnificent lob gave them a 4-5 lead at half-time and two more brilliant centre-shots sent them 4-7 up midway through the third.

This 0-4 rush proved to be decisive as the Serbs’ desperate attempts to come back failed to bear any fruit. Though they found some rhythm but were unable to score despite having a couple of possessions at 5-7 and 6-8. On the other hand, the Montenegrins wasted a series of fine chances to close down the match earlier, still, once scoring for 6-9, they defended well enough to secure their win as the Serbs last goal for 8-9 came too late, with 0:03 remaining.

The last showcase of the evening, featuring Spain and Croatia didn’t disappoint either. The first half was as balanced as it could be, the gap was never bigger than one goal and the lead was changing constantly. Ante Jerkovic hit the first when the goalie was excluded, but the Spaniards replied with two in 35 seconds. It continued in a similar way, the first period ended 3-3, then Len Dujmic opened the scoring in the second and later he put the Croats ahead again, but the Spanish always found the way to equalise. Then, at 5-5, an erroneous re-entry gifted them a penalty, and they went ahead for 6-5. The Croats, cooling down after the useless debate, not only levelled it up but Dujmic’s brilliant action shot gave them a 7-6 lead at half-time.

They had a couple of fine chances to double their lead, including a man-up, but missed them all. Soon it was Spain who went 8-7 up. Tomas Soler netted a quick counter and 59 seconds later Marc Comabella put away an extra. The advantage didn’t last long as Maro Susic let the ball fly in a man-up for 8-8. Defences stepped up in the following minutes, then the last minute saw one 6 on 5 apiece, both played after a time-out. The Spanish wasted theirs due to a bad pass, the Croats could take a shot but Susic hit the post, so the fourth began at 8-8.

Two minutes into the final quarter, Soler buried a penalty, and Spain had two possessions to go up by two – instead, the Ante Jerkovic Show began as the Croatian leftie scored two great goals, the second from an impossible angle, so just like before, it was another twist as the Croats led 9-10. Spain had some fine chances to equalise but this time they failed to do that, and Susic buried an extra with 2:38 to go. For the first time, it was a two-goal gap, but Javier Sanchez-Toril pulled one back from the next possession and it was he who saved the match to a shoot-out as his magnificent lob found the back of the net 5 seconds from time.

Still, the Croats bagged two points as one save from Nikola Batos was enough in the penalty-roulette.

Group C&D: Turkey edge out host Romania

Hosts Romania, playing in the lower division in Group C, were part of the evening programme and their tie against Turkiye was very well fitting to the big ones’ battles. It was a toe-to-toe fight with the lead changing constantly. The home side, pushed by an almost capacity crowd, jumped to a 2-4 lead but the Turks responded with three straight goals to go 5-4 up by half-time. Cagan Aliban’s action goal made it 6-4 early on before the Romanians halted their scoreless run after ten long minutes. Once they were back on track they managed to equalise – and Andrei Rotaru’s double sent them ahead just before the buzzer at 8-9.

Despite conceding five in the third, the Turks came back as determined as ever to turn the cards once more with two great action goals. The hosts could level it up twice but Demir Pekcanli’s pinpoint shot from the wing in a 6 on 5 for 12-11. Though it was still 2:41 to go, the result never changed again – the hosts were unable to bury a man-up and a fine counter either and their 7 on 6 in the last 24 seconds ended with an easy-to-catch shot.

The morning ties in Group C and D produced lop-sided contests. France hammered Poland in a match where not only goals galored, 35, but penalties too – 12 in total (7 for France, 5 for Poland). The French got really going in the middle two periods when they netted 8 goals apiece.

The Germans were on their way to a blast as they led 13-3 after three periods, before they slowed down for the fourth and the Georgians could cut the gap with a 1-5 run.

Malta didn’t do the same against Ukraine, in fact, after building a 16-6 lead in three quarters, they added a brutal 8-0 finish against their worn-out rival.

Division One (Rio Maior)

The tournament kicked off with a match where Israel took control right away and didn’t seem to face any headaches in their opener against Belgium. They built a commanding 8-3 lead by halftime and were 10-3 up early in the third and still held on for 13-9 with 2:35 minutes remaining. Then came a sudden surge from the Belgians who scored three goals in a span of 79 seconds to come back to 13-12 with one minute to go. However, they didn’t have a real chance to equalise and Yuval Gal-On’s last-gasp goal sealed Israel’s win.

Slovakia and Moldova also played a relatively close match where Moldova managed to shut out the Slovaks for 15 minutes, from the middle of the second period till the early phase of the fourth. During that, the Moldavians had a 0-7 blast, leaving no way back for their rivals.

The other matches produced scoring festivals, Great Britain thrashed Austria and Bulgaria showed no mercy against Ireland.

A power outage halted the last match between Switzerland and Denmark, forcing the officials to postpone the match to Tuesday.

Results, Day 1

Elite Championship, Oradea

Group A

Greece v Italy 9-14, Hungary v Netherlands 15-11

Group B

Serbia v Montenegro 8-9, Spain v Croatia 11-11, pen: 3-5

Group C

France v Poland 26-9, Turkiye v Romania 9-8

Group D

Germany v Georgia 14-8, Malta v Ukraine 24-6

Division One, Rio Maior

Group A

Slovakia v Moldova 11-15

Group B 

Bulgaria v Ireland 28-8, Switzerland v Denmark postponed

Group C

Israel v Belgium 14-12, Great Britain v Austria 20-12

Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics