Spain and Hungary will meet in the European Championships final for a third successive time after both sides triumphed in their respective semis in Oeiras on Thursday. In the 2022 and 2024 editions, when the competition was contested at U19 level, Spain lifted the trophy on both occasions. So, the Magyars will be hoping it’s a case of third time lucky when the great rivals meet again in Friday’s showdown. Hungary gradually wore down Italy to book another shot at the gold, while Spain swept aside the Netherlands to move within one victory of a fourth straight European crown.
2026 Women’s U20 European Water Polo Championships
Oeiras, Portugal
Day 6 – Results
Thursday 6 August
Semifinals
Hungary 10-8 Italy (1-2, 4-3, 3-3, 2-0)
Netherlands 8-15 Spain (1-4, 1-4, 2-3, 4-4)
5th-8th Classification
Neutral Athletes B 20-7 Croatia (6-1, 6-2, 6-2, 2-2)
Greece 19-13 Great Britain (7-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-4)
9th/10th Final
Israel 16-7 Serbia (5-2, 4-2, 3-2, 4-1)
11th/12th Final
France 27-5 Portugal (8-2, 8-1, 3-1, 8-1)
13th-16th Classification
Germany 18-11 Czechia (8-3, 5-1, 4-5, 1-2)
Ukraine 12-28 Türkiye (0-4, 3-6, 4-8, 5-10)
Hungary 10-8 Italy (1-2, 4-3, 3-3, 2-0)
In the first semifinal, Italy forced Hungary into a fierce toe-to-toe battle, but ran out of steam in the final period as the Magyars eventually prevailed, though not before being pushed to their limits.
Beatrice Cassara opened the game with two stunning centre-shots while the favourites found it extremely difficult to break down the Italian defence.
After more than five minutes, Panna Tiba finally opened Hungary’s account from action. They had already missed one six-on-five chance, and fluffed another shortly after Tiba’s strike.
Italy were also struggling to find a way through the Hungarian wall, wasting three extras, yet still held a 2-1 lead after the opening eight minutes.
Cassara completed her hat-trick with a penalty a minute into the second period, but Eszter Varro replied in a six-on-five, unusually using her left hand for a simple finish.
Italy’s spirited defence then killed back-to-back woman-downs, though they couldn’t capitalise on their fourth extra at the other end.
Goalkeeper Letizia Scibona also produced some excellent saves, including keeping out Zoe Lendvay’s penalty, before Lara Bianco’s fierce strike doubled Italy’s advantage to 4-2.
Before Hungary slipped into deeper trouble, Dominika Kardos finished off a counter, and after another spell of fierce battling, Adrienn Hetzl rocketed one into the top-right corner from distance to level the scores at 4-4.
Eleonora Bianco then copied her sister’s earlier superb 6m shot to restore Italy’s lead, but a late penalty converted by Kata Hajdu, with just seven seconds left in the half, brought Hungary level once again at 5-5.
Hungary survived another woman-down before Dominika Kardos put her side in front for the first time with a fine drive, but they couldn’t convert another extra and Malika Bovo’s fierce effort from a tight angle caught out Luca Torma.
As the game wore on, the Magyars gradually began to take control, with their physical superiority becoming increasingly apparent.
Italy had fewer opportunities to create clear chances and found it harder and harder to contain Hungary’s pace in attack.
That pressure earned two exclusions in the space of a minute, and Lili Soti fired home both six-on-fives to give Hungary an 8-6 advantage.
But Italy refused to give in, despite missing their seventh six-on-five. Bianca Rosta’s 6m free-throw found its way into the net before Lara Bianco’s effort took a wicked deflection on its way in.
However weary the Italians looked, they still battled back to level at 8-8 with eight minutes remaining.
That fatigue eventually took its toll when Elly Pasqualin failed to realise she had been excluded, gifting Hungary a penalty, and Hajdu made no mistake.
Scibona then managed to unsettle Varro enough to force another missed penalty, and Italy soon earned two more six-on-fives, but their efforts were comfortably dealt with by Torma and the Hungarian defence.
At the other end, Dominika Kardos finally converted an extra to make it 10-8 with 2:48 remaining, and Hungary looked to have one foot in the final.
They still had to survive another woman-down, the 10th of the match, but stood firm to shut out Italy throughout the fourth period and seal their place in the final.
Netherlands 8-15 Spain (1-4, 1-4, 2-3, 4-4)
Spain’s superb defence and clinical finishing killed the party by half-time. The tournament favourites – winners of the last three editions when the competition was played as the U19 Europeans – produced two near-perfect quarters to race into an 8-2 lead at the break.
The Dutch battled hard, but they needed to take every scoring chance while finding something extra defensively to stay in contention.
They held on at 1-1 for just over six minutes before the first wave of Spanish blows arrived.
Carlota Penalver struck twice in the space of 15 seconds and, after the Netherlands missed a six-on-five, Queralt Anton fired home from action with three seconds remaining in the first period for a 4-1 advantage.
Indeed, the final two goals of the quarter came from unforced Dutch errors, and they were only able to limit those briefly in the second quarter.
The restart was promising, though, with a strong woman-down defence followed by a fine action goal from Tess van der Meer, but the Spanish machine soon began to click into an even higher gear.
Another quickfire double in 32 seconds restored a four-goal cushion. Soon after, the Netherlands lost one of their key players, as Pien Gorter – who netted seven times in the quarterfinal against Greece – was forced to leave the pool after being shown a red card.
Anton soon buried a six-on-five and, 45 seconds later, Martina Claveria finished off a counter from close range.
It completed another devastating finish to the quarter from Spain, another 4-1 period and an 8-2 lead by half-time.
In reality, the contest was effectively over, but Spain’s defence never lost its composure.
The title-holders opened the third with two more action goals to move 10-2 clear before the Dutch finally replied with two late strikes in the period, but even then, Spain had the final say, with Irene Briceno making it 11-4 heading into the final period.
Their grip loosened slightly in the fourth, which produced four goals apiece, as the Spaniards cruised into a fourth consecutive final.
They defeated Hungary to lift the title on the previous two occasions, and Friday evening’s decider will bring another showdown between the two great heavyweights.
Elsewhere, in the 5th-8th classification matches, Greece and Neutral Athletes B both produced comfortable victories to set up a showdown for fifth on Friday.
The Greeks stormed into a 7-2 lead against Great Britain and maintained a comfortable cushion until the final whistle.
The Brits refused to lie down, though, with Lucy Blenkinship spearheading the resistance and delivering five goals, but the closest they came in the second half was within four.
Neutral Athletes B team swept aside Croatia, who appeared to have lost their edge after their tremendous but ultimately unsuccessful quarterfinal battle against Italy.
The Croats were unable to contain the NAB attack, which produced six goals in each of the opening three periods.
Vladislava Nechaeva and Mariia Daniliuk led the charge with five and four goals respectively.
The earlier 9th/10th and 11th/12th final classification matches were equally one-sided as Israel eased past Serbia and France claimed a dominant victory over Portugal.
In the round-robin mini-tournament for the 13th-16th places, Türkiye and Germany both claimed their second victories and will meet on the final day to decide 13th place.
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Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics
