The first quarterfinal of men’s water polo tournament started really tense and was extremely exciting until the third quarter, but in the end, Hungary was able to come away with the win, which means they will play a world championship final on their home field.

The defending champion Serbia and the olympic silver medalist Croatia played a truly spectacular match in the second semifinal in the Hajós Alfred Complex and at the and Croatia celebrated, which means they can prepare for a clash againts the host team Hungary. 

fina-budapest2017.com 

29 July, Saturday 

Greece scored the first goal of the game, but Hungary equalized immediately with a goal from Balázs Erdélyi. Both teams played well on defense in the first quarter, but Hungary was able to take the lead with a wonderful backhanded goal from Hosnyánszky, which might as well be the goal of the tournament.

1st semifinal

Greece-Hungary 5-7 (1-2, 3-3, 0-1, 1-1)
Hajós Alfréd Swimming Complex, referees: Naumov (orosz), Buch (spanyol)
Görögország: Flegkas – Genidouinas 3, Fountoulis 2, Argyropoulos, Kolomvos, Gounas, Vlachopoulos. Subs: Delakas, Dervisis, Kapotsis, Pontikeas, Mourikis. Head coach: Theodoros Vlachos
Magyarország: Nagy V. – Vámos 2, Hosnyánszky 2, Erdélyi 1, Gór-Nagy 1, Varga Dénes, Hárai 1. Subs: Török, Manhercz, Zalánki, Decker Á., Mezei. Head coach: Tamás Märcz 

Greece started the second quarter better with goals from top scorer Fountoulis and Genidounias, who scored three of the four first half goals from Greece. Hungary was down by one but eventually won the first half 5-4 with a goal by Hárai when there was only five seconds on the clock.

There was only one goal in the third period, Márton Vámos was on fire after his big shot. Greece hit the post a couple of times so they were a bit unlucky this time. Hosnyanszky increased Hungary's lead to 3 goals in the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Viktor Nagy made some spectacular saves in the second half and there were a couple of big field blocks as well, so Hungary defensed extremely well, they didn't concede a single goal in the second half until the last second.

So Hungary won 7-5 and they will have a chance for the gold medal against either Serbia or Croatia and they will have the home field advantage on Saturday.

 in the 2nd semifinal:

Serbia-Croatia 11-12 (1-1, 4-4, 4-4, 2-3)
Hajós Alfréd Complex, referees: Steven Rotsart (USA), Adrian Alexandrescu (ROU)
Serbia: Mitrovic B. – Rasovic, Randelovic 1, Pijetlovic 2, Filipovic, Prlainovic 6, Mitrovic S. 1. Subs: Pijetlovic, Mandic 1, Cuk, Ubovic, Aleksic, Jaksic. Head coach: Dejan Savic.
Croatia: Bijac – Loncar 2, Jokovic 3, Buslje 2, Sukno 3, Setka, Garcia. Subs: Macan, Fatovic, Buljubasic, Vukicevic 2, Krapic, Marcelic. Head coach: Ivica Tucak.

The first goal came five minutes into the game, Prlainovic scored first on an extramen situation for Serbia. In the last second of the first quarter, the captain Sandro Sukno equalized, so as expected, this semifinal started off really exciting and tense.

In the second quarter Serbia took off and scored twice in a row, and the second one came on a really rare 6-on-3 situation. Croatia came back to even quite quickly, but Prlainovic had the hot hand and the olympic- and world champion Serbia had the lead once again with his third goal of the match. The teams went to the break with a 5-5 tie as Croatia did it again, they scored in the final seconds of the quarter.

The two sides went neck-to-neck in the third quarter, every time Serbia scored, Croatia answered. Prlainovic was spectacular, with his fifth goal Serbia had the lead but amazingly, Croatia was able to score once again in the last seconds with a penalty. At the end of the third quarter, 9-9 was on the scoreboard, it was an extremely exciting game.

In the fourth quarter Andrija Prlainovic – who else – scored first on a quick break to give Serbia the lead, but Croatia equalized again in this epic game. Croatia had to wait 27 minutes to take the lead, but Serbia equalized quickly. The excitement was at an absolute high point, when Croatia took the lead again exactly three minutes before the final whistle. Neither team was able to score until the end, where Marko Bijac made an incredible save to win the game for Croatia.

The result is a mild upset and this means that Serbia’s incredible sequence of winning everything in the last 3 years was broken. This was one of the best games maybe in the history of water polo and Croatia can prepare for the final, where the host team Hungary is going to be the opponent.

For flash quotes click here.

For 11th place:

Brazil-Kazakhstan 5-9 (1-4, 2-2, 0-1, 2-2)
Hajós Alfréd Swimming Complex, referees: Franulovic (CRO), Ghafouri (IRI).
Brazil: Soro – Cruz 1, Coutinho 2, P. Stellet, Rocha, G. Guimaraes, Freitas. Subs.: Almeida 1, Silva, R. Guimaraes, M. Stellet, Carrulo 1. Head coach: Angelo Coelho.
Kazakhstan:  Shlemov – Medvedev 1, Shedov, Shmider 1, Shakenov 2, Ukumanov 2, Ruday 1. Subs.: Pilipenko, Altayev 1, Turlykhanov 1, Manafov, Verdesh. Head coach: Nemanja Knezevie.

Photos: Máté Balogh/Bp2017

The Brazilian team seemed to be more concerned about this morning’s chill. The opening match was played for the 11thplace. The South-American team managed to shoot on target only once, something Coutinho made a goal of. By that time the Kazakh team had scored three goals. From the middle of the second quarter the Brazilians settled their comfortable 3-4 lead, something they held up until the end.

For a fun fact, at the opening match of the men’s water polo tournament Brazil and Kazakhstan were the two teams who faced off each other. At that match the South-Americans won with the score of 6-2.

For flash quotes click here.

For 9th place

Japan-Spain 11-13 (2-1, 4-6, 3-4, 2-2)
Hajós Alfréd Swimming Complex, referees: Stanko Ivanovski (MNE), Viktor Salnichenko (KAZ)
Japan: Tanamura – Adachi 3, Shiga 2, Iida, Shimizu, Arai 2, Okawa 3; Subs: Kawamoto, Yoshida 1, Takata, Inaba, Araki, Fukushima; Head coach: Yoji Omoto
Spain: : Motos Martin - Munarrizz Egana 1, Granados Ortega, Bustos Sanchez, Minguell Alferez, Barroso Macarro, Fernandez Miranda; Subs: Lopez Pinedo, del Toro, Espanol Lifante 5, Tahull Compte 2, Mallarach Guell 2, Gutierrez Santiago 3; Head coach: David Martin

After achieving their highest rank in the history of the World Championships confidently, Japan faced off Spain with a strong determination to win this match. The first goal was scored by them, accompanied by the cheering ovation of the Japanese fans. Two minutes before the middle break, the Spanish team managed to lead by two points. The Japanese scored their goals mostly by executing successful counterattacks.

 Although the Asian team barely let its opponent increase their lead to more than two goals, in the end they couldn’t turn the match around. Spain finished 9th.

For 5-8th places:

Montenegro-Russia 9-8 (1-1, 4-2, 2-4, 2-1)
Hajós Alfréd Swimming Complex, referees: Stavridis (GRE), Koryzna (POLl)
Montenegro: Scepanovic – Drasko Brguljan 4, Petkovic, Draskovic, D. Radovic, Misic 1, Cuckovic. Subs.: Banicevic 1, Darko Brguljan, A. Radovic 3, Ukropina, Murisic. Head coach: Vladimir Gojkovic
Russia: Statenko – Vasilyev, Bugaychuk, Merkulov 2, Kholod 1, Lisunov 2, Shepelev 1. Subs: Lazarev, Dereviankin 1, Ashaev, Nagaev 1, Suchkov. Head coach: Sergey Evstigneev

Both the team from Russia and Montenegro have been badly beaten in the quarter finals, the first by Greece, the latter by the Hungarians.

The two teams have arrived at Budapest with a renewed team. A possible fifth place would have been a comfortable final result for both teams – the first step to this had to be taken on Thursday.

The score was real close throughout the whole game, firstly the Russians lead by one point, soon followed by Montenegro equalising the score. No more goals happened in the first eight minutes. The score was 5-3 in the middle break, the biggest difference during the match. Vladimir Gojkovic’s team usually took the lead but the Russians equalised soon.

Five and half minutes before the end, the score was 8-8. It became unpredictable who the winner was going to be. Aleksandar Radovic’s goal resulted in a lead for Montenegro with the score of 9-8.

Two and half minutes before the end, the Russians got into an extramen situation but Scepanovic saved the situation. In the end, Montenegro held the ball confidently. Due to Ivan Nagaev’s foul, the team held posession up until the end.

Montenegro finished 5th, Russia will play for the 7th place on Saturday.

For flash quotes click here.

Australia-Italy 4-8 (2-4, 2-2, 0-0, 0-2)
Hajós Alfréd Swimming Complex, referees: Molnár P. (HUN), Putnikovic (SRB)
Australia: Slade – G. Ford, Edwards, Gilchrist 1, Younger, A. Ford, Hollis 2. Subs: Putt, Kayes 1, Power, Fannon, Brooks. Head coach: Elvis Fatovic
Italy: Volarevic – Di Fulvio 2, Figlioli 2, Nora, Renzuto Iodice, Aicardi 1, Bertoli. Subs: Tempesti (kapus), Gitto 1, N. Presciutti 1, Mirarchi, Fondelli, Bodegas 1. Head coach: Alessandro Campagna

Australia didn’t have much chance to beat Serbia in the quarter finals, but the team has proved its strength against the world championship’s titleholder. They didn’t manage to get further, but getting into the top eight is still a great result for the team.

Obviously, Elvis Fatovic didn’t want to finish last as one of the four middle rankers. The team started offensively against Italy, the kangoroos led ahead their opponent even with the score of 2-0. Italy woke up afterwards and they managed to turn the match around. By the end of the first quarter the team lead with the score of 4-2.

Australia didn’t give up easily. Interestingly, even without their best, Aaron Younger, the greens managed to keep on track. They played a tie in both the third and fourth quarter. There was no goal in the third part of the game.

The professional goalkeepers of the Italian team showed us an impressive performance. For instance, Stefan Timpesti saved six goals out of six shots. By the end of the game, the European team led by three goals, it proved to be enough. Francesco Fulvio even increased their lead.

Italy will face Montenegro for the 5th place, Australia will clash with Russia for the 7th.

For flash quotes click here.

Semifinals:

29 July, Saturday

For the 7th place
12:00 – Australia-Russia

For the 5th place
13:30 – Montenegro-Italy

Bronze game
15:00 – Greece-Serbia

Final