Four brilliant encounters kicked off the Men’s U20 European Water Polo Championships’ Elite Division tournament in Varna. In the top two groups, Italy bested Croatia and Hungary earned a thrilling shootout win over Greece. Montenegro finished strong against Germany, while Tomas Perrone, nephew of the legendary Felipe, hit six goals for Spain, including a buzzer beater at the end. The Spaniards came back from four goals down to beat Serbia with penalties.
Teams didn’t hold back anything and in the first division groups they produced four outstanding matches. The battle of Croatia and Italy kicked off the top-level action, and the opening period already saw five goals apiece. The Croats hit two early in the second to go 7-5 up but the Italians managed to climb back to 8-8 by halftime.
Nardo Dragas’ 6m blast gave the lead back to Croatia, but the reply was swift, a pair of action goals in 45 seconds and kept this advantage till the end of this quarter. Again, a 6m blast from Ante Jerkovic brought the Croats back to even at 11-11, but once more, the Italians hit twice in a minute. Maro Susic pulled one back from a penalty and soon he could have equalised from a counter but missed it, and Antonio de Simone sent the ball home 14 seconds later for 12-14.
Jerkovic’s rocket gave some hope for the Croats, but Diego Tresa made no mistake in a 6 on 4 with 1:24 remaining. The time-out didn’t help, the Croats’ 7 on 6 didn’t work and the Italians led a patient attack to finish it from close against a player, with the goalie watching from the side, five seconds from time to seal a great win.
Next came the grand battle of Hungary and Greece and they came up with a fantastic game. At the beginning, the Magyars jumped to a 5-2 lead, but the Greeks hit back with some pinpoint finishing in man-ups to make it 6-6 and it was tied at 8-8 at halftime.
It was an 11-goal quarter, and it was repeated in the third as offences were ruthless. The Magyars took the lead four times with brilliant action goals, but the Greeks could equalise each time and stunned their rivals with a double to go 12-14 ahead for the first time. Csongor Lugosi hit his third from the centre to give some hope for the Hungarians 47 seconds from time.
After this flood of goals, it was somewhat unexpected how the defences stepped up in the fourth. Both goalies ‘came back’ to life. Almost four minutes gone when Mor Benedek, son of a late legend Tibor Benedek, hit his 4th from an extra and soon Botond Balogh also netted his fourth to retake the lead for Hungary. The Greeks, being shut out for seven and a half minutes, managed to go back to even with 1:24 remaining, Christos Laskaridis buried a six-on-five, also scoring his fourth.
The decision was left to the penalties and after one save at both ends, David Szitas made a second stop in the 7th round to secure two points for the Hungarians.
Montenegro, built around their brilliant European champion U18 side from last season, took off a flying start against Germany and led 6-2 early in the second but their rivals stunned them with a series of finely played extras and climbed back to 8-7 by halftime.
Once more, in the third, the Montenegrins went 11-8 up but the Germans refused to surrender and soon they were trailing by one goal again, before Ljubomir Kovacic put away a six-on-five for 12-10. Interestingly, the remaining four and a half minutes didn’t see more goals, then soon after the start of the fourth, Danilo Stupar buried a penalty and 45 seconds later fired one in from the perimeter to make it 14-10, leaving no way back to the Germans.
In that last encounter featuring the big ones, after a balanced first period, Serbia seemed to have delivered the killer blow to the Spaniards in the third period with a 0-3 rush. The Spanish, scoreless for nine long minutes, pulled one back lately, but Vasilje Pakaski netted an extra 15 seconds from time to reset the four-goal gap at 6-10.
However, Spain was far from being done. They came back strong in the fourth and on the heels of Tomas Perrone, nephew of the great Felipe, netted three unanswered goals in five minutes. Pakaski added another 6m blast and after another quick exchange of goals, the Serbs still led 10-12 with 1:29 on the clock.
Spain forced a penalty in a six-on-five, Perrone buried it with 58 seconds to go, then he made a steal and his mates could force a 6 on 4 in the last 10 seconds. Of course, it was Perrone who sent it home just beating the buzzer and saving the game to a shootout. It was his 6th goal of the game and the 4th in the final period.
After two rounds of buried penalties, reserve goalie Adria Serrano came in and made back-to-back saves to secure two points for Spain, making their miraculous comeback complete.
Elsewhere, in the lower division, the opening day saw only lop-sided contests. Turkiye downed France with a 9-1 rush in the middle two periods, while the Netherlands beat Malta in a 30-goal encounter. Romania stormed to a 6-1 lead against the Czechs and never looked back and Bulgaria also landed a big win at the expense of Slovenia, with Leon Kaszan leading the charge for the hosts with 6 goals.
Men’s U20 European Water Polo Championships, Division Elite, Varna (BUL)
Group A: Croatia v Italy 13-16, Hungary v Greece 15-15, pen: 6-5
Group B: Montenegro v Germany 16-13, Spain v Serbia 12-12, pen: 4-2
Group C: Turkiye v France 15-8, Bulgaria v Slovenia 17-11
Group D: Netherlands v Malta 18-12, Romania v Czechia 21-7
For detailed results:
For Division One results, check out the results on this link:
Watch each game from both divisions live on www.euroaquatv.com
