Türkiye sink Serbia to reach top eight of Women’s U16 European Water Polo Championships

The crossover matches brought one upset in Istanbul, at the Women’s U16 European Water Polo Championships on Monday. Hosts Türkiye managed to bring down Serbia to take its spot in the first division for the next edition and to play in the quarter-finals here on Tuesday. Elsewhere, Netherlands, Germany and Croatia delivered expected wins and will play in the quarters as well.

Women’s U16 European Water Polo Championships
Day 4 Crossover Results – Istanbul, Türkiye
Monday 30 June 2025

Serbia 10-17 Türkiye
Netherlands 25-6 Czechia
Croatia 22-8 Romania
Germany 15-8 Ukraine

Women’s U16 European Water Polo Championships
Day 5 Quarter-Finals – Istanbul, Türkiye
Tuesday 1 July 2025
(Local times shown)

16:00 Greece v Türkiye
17:30 Italy v Netherlands
19:00 Spain v Croatia
20:30 Hungary v Germany

Since the two-division format has been introduced at the age-group European Championships, challengers from the lower groups could barely unsettle the top division sides in the crossover matches.

Now, hosts Türkiye have proven it is possible to outperform the traditionally bigger rivals that finished third or fourth in the first division and thus forced to play crossovers to retain their spots.

The game between Türkiye and Serbia was equal in the opening eight minutes and the Serbs even took the lead early in the second as they edged 4-3 ahead.

What came next was a tremendous 0-5 run by the Türks, in a span of five minutes, and the Serbs could never really recover from that blow.

They did manage to pull one back four seconds before half-time and scored another 24 seconds into the third, but again, the Türks staged a 0-4 rally to lead 6-12 and there was no way back from there.

Greece await the home side on Tuesday in the last eight – and that might be a different story…

The Netherlands did a clean job against the Czechs, despite a slow start. After going 5-3 up in the first, a 4-0 rush in the second did the damage and they added 16 more against their worn-out opponents. Facing the Italians in the quarters will be a lot tougher for the Dutch, though.

Croatia didn’t leave it late against Romania, as they stormed into a 12-0 lead by half-time to ensure some easy cruising in the second half, and they’ll need that saved energy – and probably more – for their next clash against Spain.

Ukraine delivered some tough resistance against the Germans in their first half, as the favourites took a slender 7-5 lead with two late goals just before the turnaround.

The decisive blow came early in the third when the Germans added two more in 34 seconds for 9-5, and their four-goal advantage was still intact at the last break.

Kicking off the fourth with three connecting goals confirmed Germany’s place in the quarters, where they will have a mountain to climb as they clash with Hungary.

Watch all the action live from Istanbul for free on the European Aquatics TV channel, which can be found by clicking here. For the full results/tables and schedule, click here.

Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics