After losing their three group matches, the Hungarian boys produced one of the greatest comebacks in the history of any European WP Championships: they won their four knockout encounters, finishing the grand march by downing host Montenegro for the title. Greece claimed the bronze after a dramatic shootout win over Serbia.
Final: Montenegro v Hungary 8-10.
Bronze medal: Greece v Serbia 9-9, pen: 5-4. For places 5-6th: Spain v Italy
8-7. For places 7-8th: Croatia v Turkiye 12-0.
Final rankings: 1. Hungary, 2.
Montenegro, 3. Greece, 4. Serbia, 5. Spain, 6. Italy, 7. Croatia, 8. Turkiye,
9. Germany, 10. Malta, 11. Romania, 12. Netherlands, 13. Georgia, 14. Israel,
15. Poland, 16. Moldova, 17. France, 18. Bulgaria, 19. Ukraine, 20.
Switzerland, 21. Slovenia, 22. Czechia, 23. Lithuania, 24. Ireland, 25.
Bosnia-Hercegovina
One might say it was business as
usual for the Hungarians – they just completed a treble by winning the third
edition of the boys’ U15 Europeans as well, after finishing atop in 2019 and
2021. However, this one was anything but business as usual. Teams losing their
first three matches barely make it to the top in any tournament – history knows
only one notable exception: the Italian ladies became world champions in Perth
1998 after a disastrous start. Twenty-five years after the young Magyar boys
staged a similar comeback, quite a feat from 15 years old kids.
Hungary’s miseries started on the
opening night when they lost to Montenegro 11-8, then Spain and Italy also
edged them out, so they were forced to play a crossover match against the
Netherlands, then faced group-winner Croatia in the quarters. They passed all
these tests, then demolished the Serbs in the semis to set up a rematch with
the hosts.
On contrary, the Montenegrins enjoyed
a winning cruising, though they faced a huge challenge in the semis where they
had to come back from four goals down to beat Greece in the penalty shootout.
In the final, the Hungarians – being
on the rise in the knockout stage – dominated right from the beginning, forcing
the home side into a chasing game. The Magyars jumped to a 1-3 lead in the
first, Montenegro had a better spell in the second when they could equalise in
39 seconds and shut out their rivals for almost five minutes but during this
phase they were unable to take the lead. It went to the Hungarians, thanks to a
fine man-up goal by the tournament’s MVP Noah Pinter, so the comeback kids led
4-5 at halftime.
Pinter carried on scoring and with
another fine action goal Hungary went 4-7 up deep into the third – however, the
hosts retained some hope by netting two before the last break for 6-7. Csaba
Jambor doubled the gap from an extra early in the fourth, then came the decisive
series of events: the Hungarians killed a man-down, then in a man-up the first
shot was saved but Zeteny Kondor rushed onto the goalie and practically pushed
the ball to the net from the goalie’s hands to make it 6-9 with 4:40 to go.
Though the hosts pulled one back soon, they were unable to come any closer and
Benedek Rabb’s blast closed down the contest with 1:30 on the clock.
The Hungarians arrived from the
bottom to the top via the toughest possible track, beating the three Balkan
powerhouses en route: Croatia in the QF, Serbia in the SF and Montenegro in the
final.
The bronze went to the Greeks who had
back-to-back shootouts in the semis and then in the game for the bronze. While
they lost the first to Montenegro, they could better the Serbs in the second
one. It was another game of twists and turns, the Serbs were in the lead in the
first half but the Greeks had a great run in the third to make it 8-6. Serbia
hit back with a 3-0 run early in the fourth, but Dimitrios Chatzis netted his
third from a man-up with 2:19 to go for 9-9. With no more goals in the
remaining time, the decision was left to the penalties. Both sides had one miss
in the first five rounds, then Chatzis scored again, while Uros Rahpeyma hit
the post, and soon the Greeks hit the water in joy.
Spain and Italy played a toe-to-toe
match for the 5th place where the Spaniards could score twice in 56 seconds
deep into the fourth for a 8-6 lead and Italy could pull only one back late in
the game. For the 7thplace, the Croats claimed a rare shutout win (12-0) over
Turkiye.
It was a record-breaking championship
with 25 teams on board, never before any single major championship welcomed so
many sides. The Montenegrin Water Polo Federation, the city of Podgorica and
all the organisers and officials did an outstanding job to host such a
smoothly-run event, another true testimony to Europe’s leading role in this
sport.
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