It was crossover day in the Division Elite at the Men’s U20 European Water Polo Championships in Varna. First division sides made no mistake, though reached the quarter-finals in different paths. Hungary and Croatia both clinched big wins, while Montenegro had to dig really deep to overcome a two-goal deficit in the fourth period against the spirited Maltese team and the Germans also came from behind to edge out the Netherlands.
What seemed to be another walk in the park before the game, turned into a dogfight where Montenegro had to dig deep to match the outstanding efforts and super-spirited performance of the Maltese players in the crossovers. From the beginning, the Maltese managed to penetrate the Montenegrin defence, still, the favourites’ shooters delivered the necessary amount of goals to lead 9-6 deep into the second period.
In this kind of matches, usually the favourites took the upper hand as their superiority prevails anyway. The Montenegrins also expected something similar to happen – but the individual players also expected the other ones to do the common homework. In offence, individuals may make a difference, but defending is a joint venture and the Montenegrins forgot that completely.
The Maltese smelled blood and staged a 0-3 run in the last three minutes while killing two man-downs and to the surprise of the ensembled, it was a tied match at halftime, at 9-9.
Many thought that the five-minute interval would be enough to make order in the Montenegrin camp. Instead, it took more than three minutes to score their next goal, but Julian Chircop also put away an extra to make it even once more. And things started turning bad to worse for the Balkan side when their rivals’ top shooter Jayden Cutajar sent the ball home from a free-throw to give the lead to Malta with 3:16 on the clock. Strahinja Gojkovic converted a six-on-five, but Elijah Schembri did the same at the other end to highlight the problems in Montenegro’s defence. And there was more room for stunning consequences as Gojkovic hit the post from the next man-up while Schembri netted a great one from the centre 11 seconds from time, and people had to look at the scoreboard twice to believe what it showed – Malta led 11-13 after three periods.
A man-up goal from Tim Perov kicked off the fourth but again, the Maltese outplayed the Montenegrin defence in their six-on-five and Jayden Cassar had an easy put-away from the post for 12-14.
Danilo Stupar stepped up to score from action in the next possession as the Montenegrins really geared up and tightened their defence while the Maltese started running out of steam. The only surprise was that they could match their opponents’ skills and speed for more then three periods, but it looked inevitable that their heroics were nearing the end. They somehow withstood the pressure and survived three shots before Nikola Petrovic tied the game with a goal from close for 14-14, 3:46 minutes from time. In 33 seconds, after another effective defending, they forced an exclusion and Stupar retook the lead with 3:13 remaining.
Malta got a last chance, a six-on-five after a time-out, but they were unable to create real danger and Ognjen Moracanin put away Montenegro’s next man-up for 16-14, with 1:22 remaining.
Luigi Dimech pulled one back with 0:47 to go, from a man-up, so there was still some hope but the Montenegrins, getting rid of their demons, managed to find the proper shots and Perov’s fierce bouncer from the perimeter closed down the contest 25 seconds before the end.
It was a great escape from the Montenegrins, who won the last six and a half minutes 5-1 – and now they take on Greece in the quarter-finals on Friday.
The other big boys passed the test with ease in the early afternoon matches. Both Hungary and Croatia netted 21 goals apiece while ousting Turkiye and France respectively.
The Magyars set the tone with a 4-0 storm in the first four minutes. The Turks, producing significant improvement under Greek maestro Konstantinos Loudis (who is also in charge of the senior team), managed to penetrate the Hungarian defence a couple of times but were unable to match the Magyars’ speed, skills and physical superiority on the long run. The Hungarians took extra care of the Turks’ best shooter Efe Naipoglu who was forced into attempts under pressure and finished the match with 3 goals from 13 shots.
At the same time, Mor Benedek and Botond Balogh led the charge for Hungary, hitting five and four respectively as their side cruised to a fine win and can get ready for the grand quarter-final against Spain.
Next came Croatia and did the same, with a bit more precision in defence. A 6-1 opening period put the match on the desired track and the Croats managed to maintain their level of play throughout the four periods. Their composed game is best mirrored by this piece of statistics: they took 33 shots and 29 were on target, so it was no surprise that the French defence crashed under the enormous pressure. Friday, it’s going to be another eternal classic with Serbia and Croatia, a must-see match for all.
As expected, the game of the Netherlands and Germany saw the most balanced battle. The Dutch had a great spell and scored three unanswered goals after 2-2, forcing the Germans to spend their energies to chase them but the Dutch managed to keep the distance for quite a while. Midway through the second, a couple of action goals reset the three-goal gap for 5-8, but the Germans fought themselves back by converting man-ups and killing a man-down between the two. Still, Rick Terlouw’s blast from a free-through gave Netherlands a 7-9 halftime lead.
This chasing script continued in the third till 9-11, when, after a long phase, the Dutch were unable to reply to the Germans’ man-up goal, what’s more, a counter after their missed extra made it all even at 11-11 with three minutes remaining. And the Germans rode the wave adding two more goals before the last break, Oskar Halb was on target twice while the Dutch missed another crucial man-up, so this 4-0 run put the favourites ahead 13-11 with one quarter to go.
The Holland players cleared their minds in the break and on the heel of Terlouw’s exceptional shooting form they came back to 13-13 in 40 seconds. Halb fired one in from the perimeter and Imme van den Schaaf put away a 6 on 4, but Halb then buried a penalty – and all that happened in 58 seconds.
The Dutch possession created no danger, while Finn Taubert hit a banger from the distance for 16-14, though there were still 3:52 to play. The Dutch, after surviving another German possession, managed to pull one back with a smart action shot from Levi Konings, so they had 2:45 minutes to save the match to shootout. They managed to kill a man-down, then a block denied their shot, but the Germans couldn’t add another goal. With 30 seconds on the clock, the Dutch had a last fine chance, a six-on-five, but a tremendous save from Eric Heinrich denied them. After a corner, when the Dutch goalie also joined the attack, a last set-up found the centre-forward but this time a block prevented the equaliser so the Germans managed to keep their spot in the first division and can play a quarter-final with Italy on Friday.
Elsewhere, in the games for the 13-16th places, Romania found it hard to better the Slovenians but an 8-3 rumbling in the fourth sealed a fine win for them. Bulgaria edged out the Czechs in a thrilling game, where the host stormed to a 3-6 lead in eight minutes, only to see their rivals stage a big comeback and equalise for 7-7 by halftime. The Bulgarians rebuilt a two-goal lead in the third, but the Czechs never gave in and came back to even, turning the fourth in a toe-to-toe battle. Still, the home side had the last laugh, Kristian Ratsov buried a penalty at 13-13 while the Czechs missed two man-ups in the remaining three minutes and the crowd gave a standing ovation for the winners.
Men’s U20 European Water Polo Championships, Division Elite, Varna
Crossovers
- Hungary v Turkiye 21-10
- Croatia v France 21-8
- Germany v Netherlands 16-15
- Montenegro v Malta 17-15
For places 13-16th
- Romania v Slovenia 17-10
- Czechia v Bulgaria 13-14
Fixtures for Friday, quarter-finals
- Spain v Hungary
- Croatia v Serbia
- Italy v Germany
- Greece v Montenegro
For detailed results:
For Division One results, check out the results on this link:
Watch each game from both divisions live on www.euroaquaticstv.com
