The third round of the FINA Men’s Water Polo World League 2016 went underway on December 1 in six European cities. Squads from Greece, Serbia and Italy were the strongest of their respective groups while Romania, Spain and Russia also won their games.
Group A’s Greece received the Hungarians in Patras (GRE) and won 12-8 (2-2, 5-3, 3-4, 2-1), while Georgia faced Romania in Tbilisi (GEO) and lost 11-13 (4-2, 2-4, 2-4, 3-3).
In Group B, current World champions Serbia played their neighbours Montenegro (5th at the 2015 FINA World Championships) in Budva (MNE). Serbia ended up triumphing 12-10 thanks in particular to the second quarter when they gave no chance their opponents (2-3, 4-0, 3-2, 3-5). Still in Group B, Spain met the French in the Catalan capital and scored 18 goals while France scored 10 times (4-1, 4-2, 5-3, 5-4).
Reigning Olympic champions Croatia were beaten by Italy in Dubrovnik 9-8 (3-2, 1-3, 2-2, 3-1), while Turkey visited Moscow and lost 9-13 (1-4, 4-1, 2-6, 2-2) to the Russian squad.
Provisional rankings of the FINA Men’s Water Polo World League is as follows:
GROUP A: GRE 9pts (3W); HUN 6 (2W, 1L); ROU 3 (1W, 2L); GEO 0 (3L)
GROUP B: SRB 9pts (3W); MNE 3 (1W, 1L)*; ESP 3 (1W, 2L); FRA 0 (2L)*
GROUP C: ITA 9pts (3W); CRO 6 (2W, 1L); RUS 3 (1W, 2L); TUR 0 (3L)
*the two teams didn’t play the second round yet, the match has been postponed to March 2016.
The fourth round of the Men’s European preliminaries will take place next year, on February 16, 2016. In the Women’s World League, the third round of European matches will be played on December 8.
Swimming news courtesy of FINA.