Courtesy: LEN
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 matches, 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 7th place, 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.
For detailed game stats, visit:
https://len.microplustimingservices.com/lenu15wpc2023/index_web.php?cal=1