Italy and Hungary will contest Sunday’s gold medal game at the men’s U16 Elite European Water Polo Championships in Istanbul after both triumphed in their semi-finals on Saturday. Italy edged a close encounter with Montenegro by one goal, while Hungary held their nerve in a shootout to get past Croatia. Elsewhere, in the Division One tournament in Ljubljana, Bulgaria and France dominated their last-four clashes to reach the grand final.
Men’s U16 European Water Polo Championships
Semi-Finals Elite Division
Istanbul, Türkiye
Saturday 12 July 2025
Italy 13-12 Montenegro
Hungary 11-11 (5-4P) Croatia
5th-8th Classification
Türkiye 11-17 Spain
Greece 14-14 (5-4P) Serbia
9th/10th Final
Netherlands 9-17 Germany
11th/12th Final
Romania 10-7 Georgia
13th-15th Play-offs
Moldova 13-10 Poland
Day 6 Division One
Semi-Finals – Ljubljana, Slovenia
Saturday 12 July 2025
Bulgaria 11-8 Bosnia & Herzegovina
Ukraine 9-16 France
5th-8th Classification
Slovenia 12-11 Lithuania
Switzerland 9-7 Cyprus
9th-12th Classification
Slovakia 25-2 Latvia
Czechia 11-12 Portugal
In the first thrilling semi-final in Istanbul, Italy, the lonely survivors among the top-ranked sides in the group stage, took on Montenegro, the team that had staged the biggest upset of the tournament by ousting Spain in the quarters.
Both sets of players didn’t hold anything back as they produced a flurry of goals in the opening period. Italy led 6-5 when the eighth minute was finally over.
Francesco Corelli’s man-up goal early in the second gave Italy a two-goal lead for the first time and they could hold on for almost the entire quarter, what’s more, after Antonio Chianese’s great goal from a counter, Italy had a fine chance to go up by three.
However, a save denied them and Luka Popovic’s brilliant backhander halved the distance at half-time, as Italy led 9-8.
Not for long, though, as Danilo Roganovic’s pin-point shot brought the Montenegrins back to even early in the third, then Francesco Maffei put away a man-up, but Roganovic scored from a lucky rebound for 10-10.
Chianese buried a penalty, which was earned through a well-timed drive and assist, then the Montenegrins missed a crucial six on five.
Later, they managed to kill a man-down, but not the next one, which also brought a penalty and Bruno Bordone doubled Italy’s advantage for 12-10. The Italians survived another man-down and brilliantly shut their rivals out in the last five minutes of the quarter.
Missed six on fives kicked off the fourth and it was more painful for the Montenegrins as they wasted three in a row.
Italy also missed one, then had two clear chances from counters, but Jaksa Milanovic came up with some tremendous saves.
These were invaluable, as it turned out, as his team-mates could equalise in 47 seconds. Luka Dragovic’s 6m blast and Roganovic’s sensational centre-shot brought them back to 12-12 with 4:03 remaining.
They even had a six on five to go ahead, but their finishing wasn’t clinical enough, which brought another crucial twist in the plot as they lost Roganovic via a 3rd foul right away and Chianese sent the ball home to retake the lead at 13-12.
The Montenegrins seemed helpless in their extras, missing two more, six altogether in the fourth period, though all credits go to Italy as they defended like giants – and ultimately those efforts sent them to the final.
Hungary and Croatia kicked off their campaigns with a series of defeats, only to hit top form when it mattered the most, in the quarter-finals. Fans were eagerly waiting to see which side could maintain the superb levels they had reached on Friday.
It was the young Hungarians that got off to a flyer. Following Deni Sappe’s opening strike for Croatia, the response was swift and precise – four unanswered goals, with two coming from the powerful arm of Adam Ofner.
Duje Burazin pulled one back for the Croats, but Marton Czirok had the last say of the quarter with a fine finish that just beat the buzzer to hand Hungary a three-goal advantage at 5-2.
Ante Peric struck at the start of the second for 5-3, but Hungary’s lead had soon stretched to four, as two shots from the perimeter – by Oliver Kormany and Benedek Gogh – evaded Petar Radman’s grasp in the Croatian goal.
Burazin then started to single-handedly haul Hungary back in, as he fired in three in a row after exclusions to expertly cut the deficit to one.
Oliver Tidrenczel reset the Magyars’ lead to two from a six on five, and although Nikola Feric hammered in from distance, Levente Stogicza made it 9-7 just before the turnaround.
In the third, Burazin, who was causing the Hungarians all kinds of problems, was on target once again, this time from a penalty and then from action to level the scores at 9-9.
It wasn’t just Hungary’s defence that was faltering at this point, it was also their attack, as Croatia managed to shut them out for all of the third and they also edged back in front through Feric’s 6m blast with 29 seconds on the clock.
The second-half record for the Magyars in Istanbul was far from great in their opening games, and their third/fourth quarter woes looked to be returning when Feric added another early in the fourth.
Benedek Gogh had other ideas though, and his fine finish made it 10-11 with 4:57 remaining. Feric was then excluded and Levente Stogicza took full advantage, dramatically equalising for Hungary with 2:49 still left to play.
Croatia immediately had a six on five chance to retake the lead – and probably win the game – but they blew it, and the decision was ultimately left to penalties.
Hungary are well-known for their shootout successes at senior level, and now their juniors are looking to continue that tradition.
With five pin-point finishes, coupled with a sensational save from Csaba Kiraly in the second round of shots, the Magyars sealed a memorable 16-14 victory to book their spot in Sunday’s grand final.
In the classification clashes between the losers in the quarter-finals, Spain and Greece managed to overcome their pains to win their respective matches.
The Spanish did a lot better against Türkiye than they did in the group stage when they had some hard times against the hosts. This time they were in full control throughout the match and set themselves up to leave Istanbul with their heads held high.
The Greeks took a 4-3 lead against Serbia in eight minutes and added another one to go 5-3 up. The Serbs found their rhythm soon and hit four goals in a row before the middle break and scored two more in three minutes in the third to lead 5-9.
Greece managed to score again after 12 minutes, but then they quickly halved the gap to trail 7-9 before the final quarter. Soon in the fourth, they were back at even, converting three penalties in a row, and with 4:24 to go, they went ahead with Maximos Mantzouridis’ action shot for 11-10.
The Serb defence was in ruins – after limiting the Greeks to seven goals in three periods, they conceded seven alone in the last one.
Still, they didn’t let it go as they managed to put away their man-ups, so it stood 12-12 with 2:18 remaining. It went on, possessions ended in goals, one after the other, then the Serbs could survive one and Nikola Pavlovic hit one from action to regain the lead at 13-14 with 1:09 remaining. Next came Mantzouridis and a 6m blast, it was his 6th of the evening which levelled it up once more, at 0:46.
After four straight goals from as many possession, the Serbs couldn’t add the 15th, the Greeks had 20 seconds to seal the win after a time-out, but, at the end, penalties were needed to separate the two teams. It was interesting to see how the goalies would fare after they could barely make a save in the 12-goal surge in the fourth.
Well, they couldn’t really recover – Georgios Pilichos indeed went too far with his moves and was ejected before the third shot. In the end, it wasn’t a save that decided the shootout – as in the fourth, Pavlovic hit the post, while the Greeks didn’t make any mistake and scored to win the game.
Germany claimed the 9th place with a commanding win over the Netherlands, while Romania downed Georgia to finish 11th.
In the round robin tournament for the 13-15th places, Moldova beat Poland and need a point on the last day against Malta to finish 13th.
The Division One tournament in Ljlubljana had almost the same schedule as Istanbul on Saturday. In the semis, Bulgaria stormed to a 6-0 lead against Bosnia and Herzegovina and seemed to be a safe bet before the Bosnians staged a late surge to climb back to 10-8 with 1:26 remaining.
However, Kaloyan Draganov sent the ball home in a six on five, 24 seconds from time, to close down the contest once and for all.
In the other semi, France won all four quarters against Ukraine, as an excellent team performance sent them through to Sunday’s final in style.
10 different French scorers helped dismantle Ukraine, who fought valiantly and only trailed 6-7 midway through the third, but from then on, they couldn’t keep up with their superior opponents.
In the crossovers for the 5-8th places, hosts Slovenia came from behind to beat Lithuania, with David Beric’s action shot 13 seconds from time proving to be the decider. They will now face the Swiss, who staged a strong finish against Cyprus.
For the 9-12th places, Slovakia cruised to victory against Latvia, while the Portuguese edged out the Czechs.
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Watch all the action live from Istanbul and Ljubljana for free on the European Aquatics TV channel, which can be found by clicking here.
For the full results/tables and schedule from Istanbul, click here.
For the full results/tables and schedule from Ljubljana, click here.
Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics