Spain secure World Cup Division I title as European water polo giants sweep all seven tickets to Sydney’s finals

All seven available spots were booked by the European powerhouses – with the 8th going to Australia, by default, as the hosts of the men’s World Cup Finals, scheduled for July in Sydney. Spain topped the Division One tournament, ahead of Italy, Greece, Hungary and Croatia, while Montenegro and Georgia joined them as the highest ranked teams in Division Two.

It’s hard to find any more demanding event than the World Cup Division One tourney – participating teams were to play six matches in seven days, with only a couple of days reserved for preparations beforehand, in the middle of the club season.

Consequently, the games were less spectacular compared to the European Championships, where all sides played with their best players and hit top gear.

Also, the approaches differed too. Hosts Greece, understandably, sent their complete line-up to the battlefield (with the exception of their injured captain, Konstantinos Genidounias).

Italy also brought their rejuvenated team which reached the semis in Belgrade as their legendary coach Sandro Campagna thought they had to grab all playing opportunities to improve as a team.

And Spain also fielded a really strong side as they wanted to leave their disappointment behind (missing the top four in Belgrade for the first time since 2018).

Not surprisingly, these three finished in the first three places, though each went through some ups and downs, and no teams could maintain a perfect record by the end of the week.

In the Group Stage, Hungary, a fine blend of nine Belgrade silver medallists and promising future prodigies, managed to land three wins, though all three came after last-gasp goals, to highlight how close all the contests were.

They stunned host Greece on the opening day with a winner five seconds from time. Then they almost fell to the Netherlands despite leading 7-4 early in the third. The Dutch produced a 1-6 surge, so the Magyars had to fight back from two goals down and scored from a seven-on-six with three seconds to go to send the match to a shootout, where a single save landed them two points.

Finally, they had a do-or-die match with the Serbs, who also came with a very young team, but were still a real threat in the group stage.

They had a tight contest with the Dutch, but a 4-0 run after 11-11 in the fourth gave them an opening win.

Next, came one of the greatest shows of the week, against the Greeks. The Serbs delivered an astonishing performance and in only one and a half quarters built a massive 4-11 lead.

Their Belgrade winning side should have had no problems to cruise to victory on the waves of that advantage – but here the youngsters melted in the heat, as the Greeks managed to score three goals in a row before half-time, which brought back their belief and also made the capacity crowd extremely loud.

The Serbs could have still had it, as they led 13-15 early in the fourth, but failed to score in the last six minutes, while Stylianos Argyropoulos offered one of his monster performances to score the last three goals to prevent Greece from making an early exit.

Serbia, somewhat devastated, were outplayed by the Hungarians the following day for three periods, but launched a final assault in the fourth to come back to 11-10 and had a seven-on-six to equalise, but it didn’t work and a late empty-net goal sealed the Magyars’ win and their berth in the finals.

Soon, the Greeks joined them, after overcoming some hardships against the Dutch – again, Argyropoulos led the charge and netted seven goals this time.

The other group saw a three-horse race as the USA, despite fielding their aces playing in Europe, were surprisingly weak, with Italy, Spain and Croatia all winning easy matches against them.

On the opening day, the Italians upset the Spanish with a disciplined and composed display. In the next round, the Spaniards bounced back with a convincing victory over the Croats, who left their older aces – like their two great centre-forwards – at home and fell four goals behind already in the first half.

The world champions managed the second half well and that sent Croatia on a pretty impossible mission as only a four-goal win would have sent them to the top four on the last day against Italy.

Indeed, they were never close – not even ahead once in the entire match. They could keep up with the Settebello till early in the third, then the Italians built a two-goal lead by the end of the quarter and doubled that to 13-9 early in the fourth, leaving no more chance for the Croats.

Since the top four secured their respective berths in the World Cup finals, the second phase turned into a high profile international tournament with prestige and pride at stake first of all.

Italy stunned Greece in a match of twists and turns. With Italy leading 6-3, the Greeks hit back with a 1-7 run, but the Italians had the better finish.

However, after the rest day, they finally lost after four straight wins, as Spain took revenge with a fine performance and needed a single point on the last day to finish atop. The Greeks also took revenge against the Hungarians, their stormy 4-0 start set the tone and they never looked back.

Spain and Greece produced a great match on the last day – Easter Sunday in Greece, with lambs grilled on charcoal in front of the pool from the morning to maintain the local traditions – which could have gone either way, but at the end, the hosts’ seven-on-six saved it to a shootout eight seconds from time and two saves in the first two rounds landed two points for the home side, but Spain grabbed the point they needed to finish first.

While the players of this penultimate game could start tasting the lamb dishes outside, Hungary and Italy offered a spectacular clash in the pool.

The Magyars survived a four-minute expulsion in the third and had a penalty at 10-9, but missed it and the Italians’ precise endgame earned them three more points and the second place, while the Magyars finished fourth after losing all three matches in the second half of the tournament.

Croatia joined the four advancing teams from the ‘lower house’ as they won all three matches and each with ease, by four goals or more.

The Serbs, after three tough matches in the group, fell to the US on the fourth day and even though they beat the Dutch once more, they were no match for the Croats in the game where they would have needed a four-goal victory, but were beaten by five at the end.

The Netherlands edged out the Americans and even though they finished 8th because of the three-way tie, they took at least a victory which they highly deserved.

The Division II tournament featured more than 20 entries which led to the inauguration of a special scoring system, where points were awarded based on the clashing sides’ respective world rankings and the actual result – the average amount ranked the teams after three matches and the top 16 entered the knockout phase.

The novelty worked well as the stronger teams took the higher seeds and the top favourite Montenegro cruised to win the event.

France edged out the returning Russians (playing as Neutral Athletes B here) in the quarters, but fell to Montenegro in the semis.

The other side of the bracket saw the Germans oust Australia in the quarterfinals, but Georgia dismantled them in the semis, sending them to Sydney, alongside Montenegro, who won a no-defence-just-score like game 19-17 over Georgia in the final.

Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics

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