As the top teams began their European Championships elite campaigns in Malta, all the favourites delivered. Hungary blew away the Dutch in the second half, Italy fended off Türkiye’s late surge, and Spain thrashed Israel while never facing a single six on five in the entire match. Greece didn’t have any headaches against Croatia either. In the lower division, Great Britain and Czechia claimed their third successive victories to move closer to the crossovers, while Serbia won a crucial clash against hosts Malta.
Group A: Hungary hammer the Dutch in second half
In the first big match of the meet, featuring two of the ‘Big Five’, Hungary hammered the Netherlands with a commanding performance in the second half. The Magyars dominated the first period, but the Dutch somehow found their way to the net, scoring two from action, while the Hungarians killed all of the four extras their rivals had.
Despite a missed penalty, Hungary went 7-3 up deep into the second quarter, but the Dutch halved the distance in 37 seconds, thanks to a penalty and a counter, launched after a minor turmoil with three straight turnover fouls.
Hungary still stood tall early in the third, denying the Dutch in two more six on fives, before they delivered the killer blow with a 3-0 run.
It wasn’t fast, but it was clinical how they dismantled their rivals’ offence and played patiently to force a penalty, and adding two more in 40 seconds after finishing off fine counters.
At 10-5, the Dutch finally converted an extra, their seventh, 40 seconds from time, but the first couple of minutes in the fourth proved decisive.
The Magyars forced five six on fives in as many possessions and netted four of those, with Adrien Hetzl hitting her fourth and fifth of the game. Indeed, besides other factors, it was the woman-up plays which made the difference, as Hungary finished six for eight, while the Dutch were one from eight.
Türkiye managed to keep up with the Italians for a surprisingly lengthy period. The favourites had built a massive 10-5 lead by half-time, but two fast and really nice centre-shots early in the third brought the Turks back into the game.
In the ensuing scoring festival, Türkiye only trailed 13-10 with 3:09 remaining before the last break. However, the Italians fired in two in 31 seconds, then added three more in the fourth for 18-11 and never looked back.
Group B: No exclusion calls against Spain, and Greece down Croatia
Spain didn’t need much time to find their usual rhythm in their opener against Israel. They may have missed their first two extras, but they soon started rolling and netted seven straight action goals in the first period.
The Spanish defence was tight, their speed was hard to match, and their finishes were clinical.
It took Israel almost 13 minutes to open their account, and by then the favourites were 11-0 ahead, and the gap never stopped growing in the remaining time.
Spain’s defence worked so well and with such discipline, that the Israelis couldn’t force a single exclusion in the entire match.
The Greeks’ start against Croatia wasn’t as spectacular, as they needed four minutes to score their first, and soon after the Croats even took the lead.
This forced Greece to raise their game and they added three more in the first quarter, then hit two more early in the second to put them in control.
The 6-0 rush was temporarily halted by Jelena Butic’s fine woman-up goal, but the favourites never looked in danger of losing their lead.
Greece’s precise shooting helped guide them to an unassailable 13-4 half-time lead and although the Croats cut the deficit in the end to just five, the Greeks were already well out of sight.
Group C: Serbia cruise on, Ukraine win big against Ireland
After both Ireland and Ukraine lost twice on the opening day, the spot in the play-off for the 13-16th places was at stake in their clash.
It turned into an epic 32-goal battle where the momentum was shifting constantly. Deep into the second, Ireland took an 8-5 lead, but next came the Ukrainians, hitting four in a row before the middle break and adding two more early in the third to complete a 0-6 run and go 8-11 up.
The Irish weren’t done though – they needed 90 seconds to score from three possessions in a row, and after killing a couple of woman-downs, Laura Casserly sent the ball home from a counter for 12-11.
Their goalie Zoe Gaffney O’Brien was unlucky as the ball barely crossed the virtual line as she put her hand on Viktoriia Rudnyk’s penalty, but that halted the Irish run and levelled the score at 12-12 before the final period.
An enormous tussle ensued, with Irish taking the lead once more, but the Ukrainians managed to net the next two, but then Casserly hammered in her seventh to equalise at 14-14.
Again, Rudnyk’s penalty just made it over the line, which saw her claim her seventh strike of the game as well. With 3:15 to go, every possession counted, but in the end it was the Ukrainians’ individual skill and strength that made the difference, as they forced another penalty and Anastasia Veremienko sent it home for 14-16 with 2:08 on the clock.
Lucy Kelly’s action shot came too late, 36 seconds from time, and what’s more, the Ukrainians didn’t want to just burn their possession time as Veremienko netted a great action goal to seal their first and really important win here.
The stakes were different in the home side’s clash against Serbia, as both teams had got off to a winning start on Sunday. However, the Serbs didn’t leave any doubt they were the better side in this match, as they stormed into a 4-0 lead in eight minutes and constantly denied the Maltese any serious scoring opportunities.
The Serbs went 7-0 up and kept the hosts to zero from seven on extras, to recall a telling piece of statistics shortly before the middle break. Then, 53 seconds from time, Chloe Amato broke the ice for Malta from the penalty line, but the Serbs also found the back of the net to lead 9-1 at half-time.
It was more balanced in the second half, as Malta hit five in the third, though the Serbs responded with a seven-goal rally in the fourth to take an important step towards the crossovers.
Group D: Last-gasp goal may send the Czechs through
In the fiercest battle of the day, Czechia managed to edge past Romania, which may rocket them to the crossovers. The Romanians hit two in 55 seconds shortly before the first break to jump to a 3-5 lead and they extended it to 4-7 and 5-8 deep in the third.
The Czechs, winning both their opening day encounters, were lifted by Lucie Bakalova’s action goals, coming like a whirlwind in 28 seconds.
At this stage, goalies could barely have a say, as six goals were scored in 2:28 minutes, with the Czechs finding their rhythm and coming back to even. The Romanians missed a series of six on fives in the last minute, so it stood 9-9 at half-time.
And it was still 9-9 eight minutes later. The goals dried up as the players tired at both ends due to the endless swimming and jostling for position. The Romanians missed one woman-up, then the Czechs wasted three in the second half of this quarter which saw no goals.
More than two minutes into the fourth, Valeria Cereusenko broke the deadlock and just 27 seconds later, Alisia Plesca added another one from action to make it 9-11.
After the long drought, the Romanians seemed to have done enough to win the match, but the Czechs also found the way to the net soon, as after 12:28 minutes, Ludmila Chlupsova’s magnificent backhander ended their scoreless run.
Just 51 seconds later, Viola Svitakova’s brilliant lob levelled the scores, so the teams had 4:23 minutes to decide the outcome. For 4:22 minutes, it was a huge battle under the sun with no more goals, and one missed extra apiece.
With 0:05 remaining, the Czechs called their second time-out hoping for a long-range shot – and Bakalova, though not from the best position, somehow found the hole between the post and the goalie’s hand from 8m, with 0.8sec on the clock.
It was a fantastic winner which landed three more vital points for Czechia and with three wins under their belt, they are well set to advance to the crossovers – while this loss dropped the Romanians from the race for the top two ranks in this group.
Great Britain have been the stand-out team in this group so far, dismantling the Romanians and the Bulgarians, and they also blew away the Slovaks with a 17-6 blast.
Amelie Perkins, who was snapped up by Padova last season, was their top scorer once again with six goals, which took her overall total in Malta to 24 in just three games.
In the clash of the winless teams, Switzerland staged a magnificent third period when they hit six goals against Bulgaria to swing the game in their favour and keep their chances of making the playoff for the 13-16th place alive.
Enjoy all matches live on our streaming platform – www.euroaquaticstv.com
Follow our livescoring site for results and more – https://results.microplustimingservices.com/ewpcU18w25/#/schedule-bydate/ASF
Women’s U18 Europeans, Malta
Results, Day 2
Group A
Hungary v Netherlands 15-7
Italy v Türkiye 21-13
Group B
Spain v Israel 24-5
Greece v Croatia 20-15
Group C
Ireland v Ukraine 15-17
Serbia v Malta 19-9
Group D
Switzerland v Bulgaria 7-5
Slovakia v Great Britain 6-17
Czechia v Romania 12-11
Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics
