Greece came back from four goals down to beat Italy in the top match in Group B at the Women’s U16 European Water Polo Championships in Istanbul on Saturday. In the other highlighted match, in Group A, Spain left no chance for the Hungarians and secured the top spot and the quarter-final berth. Greece are also on their way to the quarters and to clinching first place in their group.
Women’s U16 European Water Polo Championships
Day 2 Results – Istanbul, Türkiye
Saturday 28 June 2025
Group A
Serbia 8-22 Netherlands
Spain 15-7 Hungary
Group B
Germany 8-6 Croatia
Greece 13-10 Italy
Group C
France 20-8 Slovakia
Türkiye 10-9 Czechia
Group D
Malta 13-12 Ukraine
In the first big match of the tournament, Greece overturned a four-goal deficit to beat Italy in a thrilling match. The Italians staged a pretty strong start, shutting out the Greeks for the entire first period while taking a 0-2 lead and added more to lead 1-5 three minutes into the second period.
What came next was the Rafaela Saltamanika show. The Greek captain hit three before half-time to lift her team and they managed to pull it back to 6-6 at the turnaround.
In the third, it was Saltamanika again who scored a stunning hat-trick after 7-7, while the Italians remained scoreless for four and a half minutes and that ultimately cost them the game.
Once down by three, their comeback attempts were halted by the Greeks right away, who sailed to a fine win, with Saltamanika finishing the match with an impressive seven-goal haul.
In the other Group B game, Germany stunned Croatia. It was a toe-to-toe battle until half-time when the Germans led 4-3, then they staged a 3-0 rush in the third which proved decisive.
The Croats managed to pull one back before the last break and another one early in the fourth, but the next four and half minutes were devoted to battling, and it was still 7-5 to Germany.
Mare Jankovic then hit one from action for 7-6, but before the Croats could have any thoughts of equalising, Bianca Mitterbauer put away an extra just 33 seconds later with 1:25 remaining, which not just halted the Germans’ seven minute-long scoreless run, but also closed down the contest.
In Group A, Spain took the upper-hand early on in their clash with Hungary. They stormed to a 6-3 lead and never looked back. Ona Jurado led the charge, hitting five of Spain’s first seven goals, while the Magyars couldn’t really outplay the Spanish defence – they missed three six on fives in a row late in the second, at 7-4, so no wonder they trailed 8-4 at half-time.
Soon, the Spanish killed the party with another 4-0 run – indeed, after thrashing the Dutch 20-6 on day one and now beating Hungary by eight goals, it was a pretty strong message about their title ambitions.
Elsewhere, Netherlands blew away the Serbs, as a 6-1 opening period put the match on its expected path and the Dutch eventually stopped their relentless barrage at 22.
As for the second division matches, Malta and Ukraine produced a really exciting encounter where the Ukrainians seemed to have the edge as they went 9-12 up midway through the last period.
However, the Maltese players hit back with a whirlwind-like rush, hitting three in just 44 seconds to level it up at 12-12 with 2:51 on the clock.
The decision came in the six on fives, as Ukraine missed their last two, while Nevise Agius netted the winner for Malta 28 seconds from time.
France had no headaches and thrashed Slovakia 20-8, while hosts Türkiye played out an epic end-to-end contest with Czechia that was full of twists and turns.
The hosts led 4-3 after the opening eight minutes, but in the second quarter the momentum was firmly with the Czechs as they staged a 0-5 surge to take control of the contest and led 4-8 at half-time.
Türkiye ended their 10-minute scoring drought early in the third through Gunes Pektas, then Eda Moroglu added another shortly after for 6-8.
Now, it was Czechia\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’s turn to struggle to score, and Türkiye stepped up another gear in the fourth to win the final quarter 3-0 and the game 10-9.
Defne Keremoglu completed Türkiye\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’s comeback in dramatic fashion, firing in the winner from outside 6m with just 14 seconds remaining, much to the delight of the large crowd inside the Istanbul arena.
Watch all the action live 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
