Serbia took a third consecutive Olympic men’s water polo title to copy Great Britain (1908, 1912, 1920) and Hungary (2000, 2004, 2008), as they replicated their wins in Rio and Tokyo. The Serbs defied all the odds: even though they haven’t won any international medals since that title in 2021, they bounced back in Paris after their terrible results in the prelims and beat Croatia with an outstanding shooting performance. The US grabbed the bronze as they managed to halt Hungary’s winning run in the shootouts.

After seven of their most outstanding players called it a day – at least in the national team – after the Tokyo Olympics with two gold medals in the bank, the reshaped Serbian team had to go through mostly downs and occasional ups. Finishing 9th at the 2022 Europeans led to the resignation of their legendary head coach Dejan Savis, but under the new boss, Uros Stevanovic, they were still far from going all the way. Apart from a surprise top-four finish in Fukuoka – where they were fourth –, they never made the semi-finals at the major competitions.

Here in Paris, that trend seemed to continue. After pulling out a narrow 16-15 win against Japan, they were destroyed by the Australians (3-8), conceded 15 from Spain and 17 from Hungary and had to dig really deep to secure at least the quarter-final spot with a win against France.

However, the results unfolded in a way that they found themselves in the lighter half of the bracket and their “nothing-to-lose” mentality, combined with their still remarkable water polo skills, sent them to the final. After Nikola Jaksic’s miraculous game-winner from 11m against Greece in the quarters, they knocked out the bewildered US team with ease, 10-6, and in the final they were almost walking on the water while the Croats could never reach the level they knew they could at these Games.

While Marko Bijac’s goaltending made the difference in the semis against Hungary, this time the Croatian goalie was unable to deliver his crucial stops. The Serbs rallied to a 5-2 lead in eight minutes and that determined the rest of the game. The Croats were forced into chasing the game and this time they couldn’t handle the pressure. Coming here, they saw the big chance available to them as they have beaten the Serbs numerous times in recent years – and after ousting Spain and Hungary, this task seemed possible. As it turned out, those two wins took their toll at the very end of a long tournament, and at the end of a long and tiring season in which they had already reached both finals at the Europeans and at the World Championships.

They lacked the necessary precision, while the Serbs found the back of the net seemingly effortlessly. Early in the second, they were 7-3 up and even though the Croats had better spells at times, the Serbs scored in the crucial moments, with Nikola Dedovic scoring with 1:12 to go before halftime for 8-5.

The trend continued again in the third quarter, with the shooters again causing trouble. Viktor Rasovic, then Radomir Drasovic sent their team ahead for 9-5, then 10-6. The Croats could pull one back, but knew that starting the last period from 11-8 down wasn’t an easy task to overturn.

Forty seconds into the fourth, Josip Vrlic’s shot in a dying man-up, after a rebound, gave them some hope – but they were unable to cut the gap to a single goal. As it turned out, they never got that close since the Serbs hit three in a row after 2-2 in the first period. Their last serious chance was a man-up in the middle of the quarter but their set-up didn’t work, and after a blocked shot from the semi-final hero Loren Fatovic, Dedovic’s blast closed down the contest with 3:13 to go, at 12-9. The Croats shot from all angles under time pressure but these balls were easy prey for the Serbian blockers or goalkeeper Radoslav Filipovic, who saved his best to the last match. He posted 10 saves on 21 shots for 48% – at the same time, the two Croatian goalies had 7 catches between them. This proved to be decisive, as Filipovic’s percentage dropped below 50% only inside the last 75 seconds when two more goals came from the Croats, to no avail. Tellingly, between the two, Milos Cuk hit his third from an impossible distance to crown his brilliant performance.

Over the last two minutes, the Serbian bench players held their heads with their hands in disbelief – it’s safe to assume that they perhaps never thought that they would end up on the top of the Olympic podium this time around.

They took their chances and that led to the historical three-peat – and three players, Dusan Mandic, Nikola Jaksic and Sava Randelovic, are also elevated to the class of the three-time Olympic champion players, joining a club that two Brits and eight Hungarians have been admitted to so far. This sees them draw level with legends of the game, such as Dezso Gyarmati, Tamas Kasas, Gergely Kiss, Tibor Benedek and Peter Biros.

For the first time since 2008, it was not an all-European podium at the end of the men’s tournament. Hungary’s struggles in offence continued against the US in the bronze medal match. Their shooting ratio in the first half was anything but worthy of the Magyar traditions; they went 16/3, as they trailed 3-4. They had a better spell in the third, when they managed to take the lead for the first time at 5-4, but soon conceded two action goals, so the US held on for a 5-6 advantage before the final period. There, the Magyars finally found their rhythm and in five minutes they produced a 3-0 run to lead 8-6. However, they ran out of gas for the final three minutes. They couldn’t deny two man-downs and were unable to create a fine chance in a man-up at 8-8, after a time-out, with 1:30 to go. They had the final possession but two attempts were not enough to score the game winner.

Still, in theory, they were not in trouble as the shootouts were their territory in recent years, thanks to Soma Vogel’s magic. Not this time, though. After their retiring legend, Denes Varga hit the bar in the first attempt – just as in the match – they suffered a downward spiral. Vogel couldn’t come up with a catch while their shooters missed two more penalties, and in three rounds it was over. Together with the semi against Croatia, they missed 7 penalties in a row (3 on Friday in the game, 1+3 this time), which alone was enough to see them leave Paris empty-handed.

Greece clinched the fifth place in an action-packed match against Spain, while Italy downed Australia to finish seventh.

Men’s tournament, classification

Final: Serbia v Croatia 13-11

Bronze medal: United States v Hungary 8-8, pen: 3-0

5th place: Greece v Spain 15-13

7th place: Australia v Italy 6-10