Four convincing wins in men’s quartefinals: Greece, Serbia, Spain and Hungary progress to Top 4

Olympic champion Serbia, European and World Cup champion Spain, Hungary, and Greece will play in the semifinals of the Men’s World Championships in Singapore.

The quarterfinal session began with a matchup between Italy, the silver medalist in Doha, and Greece. The Greeks recorded a 17:11 victory. They earned a crucial advantage in the first half, when they had a man-up for four minutes, because of a red card shown to Matteo Iocchi Gratta. Just as at the Olympic Games, a violent foul affected Italy’s result in the quarterfinals. However, this time it was not a crucial factor; Greece played excellently and controlled the match from the first whistle until the final buzzer, regardless of a man-up advantage they had during the mentioned four minutes.

Spain ran over Montenegro – 14:5. The Montenegrins scored three goals in the first two minutes and only two in the remaining 30.

The next two quarterfinals were replays of the semifinals at the 2024 Paris Games.

Olympic champion Serbia, which fields a similar team to the one that won Olympic gold, defeated Team USA, featuring several debutants, by five goals, 14:9. The Serbs led throughout the game.

Hungary defeated Croatia 18:12 in the last match of the day. In the middle of the game, Hungary earned a six-goal advantage (13:7). Croatia almost came back, reducing the gap to only two goals (12:14), but Hungary scored four unanswered goals in the final four minutes to achieve a convincing victory.

Greece and Spain will face off in the first semifinal, while Serbia will take on Hungary.

Japan and Romania defeated Brazil and Canada convincingly in the semifinals of the 9th-12th place classification.  Australia finished in 13th place, China in 14th, Singapore in 15th, and South Africa in 16th.

 

Road to medals

• Crossover round (July 18): Serbia– Japan 21:14, Romania– Hungary 11:15, Brazil– Greece 5:17, Canada– Montenegro 10:22
• Quarterfinals (July 20): Italy– Greece 11:17, Spain– Montenegro 14:5, USA– Serbia (QF3), Croatia– Hungary 12:18.
• Semifinals (July 22): Greece – Spain , Serbia – Hungary.
• Final Day (July 24)

2025 World Men’s Water Polo Championships, Day 5

QF Quarterfinals

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Italy – Greece 11:17 (1:6, 1:3, 4:4, 5:4)

Italy: Bruni 3, Di Fulvio 2, Cassia 2, Damonte 1, Cannella 1,
Greece: Argyropoulos 4, Chalyvopoulos 3, Genidounias 2 Kalogeropoulos 2, Nikolaidis 2, Gkillas 1, SKoumpakis 1,Kakaris 1, Pouros 1.

Greece outplayed Italy in the first half of the match. A violent foul committed by Matteo Iocchi Gratta and a four-minute man-up advantage helped the Greeks to build a significant lead. However, Greece performed better than Italy both before and after the exclusion. So, the red card was just one of the factors that made the difference.

The Greeks opened the scoring with the first goal, but Italy quickly leveled the match at 1:1. Greece then responded with two consecutive goals, taking a 3:1 lead.  A minute and fifty seconds before the first break, Iocchi Gratta kneed Argyropoulos in the head under the water. After reviewing the incident with VAR, the referees showed a red card to Iocchi Gratta. As a result, his team had to play with only five field players for the next four minutes. The Italians did not protest the decision, as they obviously recognized that the foul was intentional.

Stylianos Argyropoulos, after suffering a violent foul, Photo by Albert ten Hove/MTB-PhotoDuring the 4-minute suspension, the Greeks scored four goals and defended one man down (when two of their players were excluded). Pouros made it 7:1 in the 9th minute. There were no goals for a while, but Argyropoulos continued the Greeks’ series after the 4-minute suspension expired, with a long-distance goal. Nikolaidis made it 9:1 in the 14th minute. The Italians struggled to find their rhythm, partially because of an outstanding performance by Greece’s goalkeeper Panagiotis Tzortzatos, who posted 14 saves today. Bruni, who scored Italy’s first goal, ended his team’s 12-minute scoring silence, converting a man-up to make it 2:9.

Still, Italy couldn’t come back, as Greece controlled the match. Cannella narrowed the gap to six goals, scoring with an extra player in Italy’s first possession in the second half. However, Greece responded with two goals by the middle of this period. Argyropoulos found the net from the deep left, and Chalyvopoulos scored from a 6-on-5. Greece had an 8-goal lead – 11:3 – in the 20th minute. The game was practically decided. Italy’s head coach switched the goalkeepers – young Baggi Necchi replaced Nicosia. However, that change had no significant impact on Italy’s defense, so Nicosia returned to the water in the fourth period.

During the third quarter, Italy managed to reduce the gap to six goals on two more occasions (5:11 and 6:12). However, they were still far from making a comeback. Dimitrios Skoumpakis hit a long-range shot just before the buzzer, bringing the score to 13:6 with only two seconds left before the break. In the 25th minute, Kalogeropoulos scored on a counterattack, extending Greece’s lead to 14:6 and effectively ending Italy’s last hopes.

Spain – Montenegro 14:5 (4:3, 4:1, 3:0, 3:1)

Spain: Sanahuja 6, Granados 3, Munarriz 2, Biel 2, Gomila 1.
Montenegro: Dj: Radovic 1, Gardasevic 1, Matkovic 1, V. Radovic 1.

The opening minutes suggested that an experienced team from Spain and Montenegro, which had rejuvenated the squad, would fight a very close battle, making the game interesting. There were five goals in the first two minutes of the game. The Montenegrins took a one-goal lead three times. Spain leveled at 1:1 and 2:2, but had no response after Matkovic made it 3:2 with an extra player. A few misses and saves at both ends of the pool followed that. In the 5th minute, Montenegro had a great chance to double its advantage. Granados committed a penalty foul. Still, Unai Aguirre saved a shot from Djuro Radovic.

After that, the Spaniards began to take control of the game. They turned a deficit into a 4:3 lead by the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, the game became a one-sided contest. In the 9th minute, Sanahuja converted a man-up opportunity, extending the lead to 5:3. Djuro Radovic then halved the gap in the next possession. However, after that goal, the Montenegrins had to wait until the middle of the fourth period to score again.

Spain held the Montenegrins scoreless for more than 18 minutes, while going on a 7:0 run. Unai Biel converted a double man-up in the 27th minute to conclude that series, 12:4. By the end of the match, the Spaniards stretched the margin to nine.

Bernat Sanahuja led Spain’s offense, scoring six goals—more than all of the Montenegrin players combined. However, the final score shows that Spain’s success was primarily due to its outstanding defense. Both goalkeepers performed very well, with Unai Aguirre making 15 saves in the first 24 minutes and Edoardo Lorrio contributing four saves in the fourth period.  Montenegro’s Petar Tesanovic blocked ten shots. So, statistically, the saves made the difference, but Spain was better in all aspects of the game.

USA – Serbia 9:14 (1:3, 2:3,2:4, 4:4)

USA: Saveljic 2, C.Dodd 2, R.Dodd 1, Daube 1, Ehrhardt 1, Irving 1.
Serbia: S. Rasovic 2, Cuk 2, N.Jaksic 2, Vico 2, Mandic 1, Randjelovic 1, Murisic 1, Vapenski, V.Rasovic, Martinovic.

Serbia, playing very well in defense and with several accurate shots in the attack, established a 4:1 lead in the 9th minute. Shortly after the fourth goal, the Serbs could go to “+4”, but Dusan Mandic’s penalty shot went too high. The Americans punished that miss with two quick goals to narrow the gap to 3:4. They played very well in defense in the following minutes, forcing Serbia to lose the ball several times without a foul. However, Serbia maintained its strong defense, with goalkeeper Radoslav Filipovic posting a few good saves. In the last 91 seconds of the first half, the Olympic champions regained a 3-goal lead. Mandic converted a man-up, and Strahinja Rasovic scored from a penalty shot – 6:3.

Powerplay goals were Serbia’s mighty weapon, like in the previous games. The Olympic champions opened the second half by converting two man-ups (Vico and Randjelovic), going to 8:3. Each team scored two goals apiece in the rest of the third period, so Serbia headed into the final quarter with a promising 10:5 advantage. In the middle of the Viktor Rasovic extended Serbia’s lead to 11:5. For the remainder of the game, the teams exchanged goals. Team USA improved its percentage of extra player shots, but it was too late.

All statistical parameters are in favor of Serbia, which scored seven goals after the USA committed personal fouls, with an excellent percentage of shots (powerplay shots – 4/5 and penalty shots-3/4). The Americans scored twice from eight shots with an extra player and had no chances from penalty shots. Serbia’s goalkeepers Filipovic and Dobozanov combined 11 saves, seven more than Adrian Weineberg posted.

Croatia – Hungary 12:18 (6:6, 1:5, 2:2, 3:5)

Croatia: Butic 4, Kharkov 2, Bukic 2, Buric 1, Fatovic 1, Loncar 1, Brubnjak 1.
Hungary: Manhercz 4, Vamos 3, Ad.Nagy 3, Ven. Vigvari 2, Vin. Vigvari 1, Ak. Nagy 1, Vismeg 1, Molnar 1, Fekete 1, Kovacs 1.

Hungary played excellently in the attack until the middle of the second period. Eight seconds before the first break, the Hungarians were 5:6 down. Then, they produced an 8:1 run to establish a 13:7 lead, which was the turning point in the big derby.

In an unusually high-scoring first quarter, Hungary led 2:0, 3:2, and 4:3. Croatia took the lead for the first time when Luka Bukic converted a man-up opportunity to make it 5:4. However, Vamos equalized shortly after. Kharkov gave Croatia a 6:5 lead with 21 seconds left in the quarter, but Fekete quickly answered, making it 6:6 just 13 seconds later.

Scoring twelve goals in eight minutes during a duel between two powerhouses is too many, even with the new rules in play. Croatia’s head coach, Ivica Tucak, attempted to shake up his team’s defense during the first break by substituting second goalkeeper Toni Popadic for Marko Bijac. Nevertheless, the Hungarian team continued to dominate, scoring three unanswered goals in the first four minutes of the second quarter to establish a 9:6 lead. Butic, Croatia’s best player today, then brought the score to 7:9, yet the Croats struggled to mount a comeback. By the end of the quarter, Manhercz and Fekete scored, giving Hungary an 11:7 advantage. Four goals separated the rivals for the first time.

Bijac came back in front of Croatia’s goal at the beginning of the second half. However, the new switch of goalkeepers hadn’t impacted Croatia’s defense. Hungary went to 13:7 with two early goals from Manhercz and Vendel Vigvari. At the other end of the pool, Hungary’s goalkeeper Kristof Csoma played better and better, but Croatia cut its deficit before the fourth period (9:13). At the end of the quarter, Kovacs and one of Croatia’s best players, Zuvela, finished the match because of a double exclusion.

A debutant Brubnjak made it 10:13 with an extra player at the beginning of the fourth period to keep his team’s goals alive. Hungary was without a goal for almost seven minutes. But, immediately after Brubnjak’s goal, Vince Vigvari ended his team’s scoreless phase from a 6-on-5 to make it 14:10. Still, the contest wasn’t over yet. Five minutes before the end, Luka Loncar ended a nice attack with a goal to cut the deficit to 12:14. The Croats had a chance to come even closer, but they missed. In the last four minutes, Hungary defended three man-downs and scored four goals for a convincing 18:12 victory.

CL 9th-12th place classification, semifinals

 Japan – Brazil 22:11 (7:1, 7:4, 4:3, 4:3)
Japan: Inaba 5, Watanabe 4, Ura 3, Date 3, Suzuki 3, Adachi 2, Takata 1, Lowrey 1.
Brazil: Real 3, Pedroso 2, Oliveira 2, Andrade 2, Guimaraes 1, Farias 1.

Romania – Canada 18:12 (5:1, 3:3, 5:4, 5:4)

Romania: Iudean 5, Neamtu 3, Georgescu 3, Vancsik 2, Prioteasa 2, Tepelus 2, Oanta 1.
Canada: D’Souza 4, Cote 3, Djerkovic 1, Gedakoudis 1, Lapins 1, Tanasijevic 1, O’Donnel 1,

Both Romania and Japan secured victories over their American rivals thanks to good openings of the games.

Japan, led by Yusuke Inaba and Taiyo Watanabe, shocked the Brazilians with a 7:1 run in the first quarter. At the beginning of the second period, the Asians widened the gap to 8:1. Deep into the second period, the Japanese reached a nine-goal lead (12:3) and maintained the difference until halftime. In the second half, Brazil improved its attack, but couldn’t endanger Japan’s victory.

Romania earned a 4:0 advantage in the first three and a half minutes of the game against Canada, which proved crucial for the Europeans’ win. The North Americans reduced the gap to three goals on a few occasions during the first half, but couldn’t come closer.

13 13th place match

Australia – China 16:9 (5:2, 3:1, 5:3, 3:3)
Australia: Power 5 Mercep 2, Byrnes 2, Berehulak 2, Glanzing 2, Grgurevic 2, Krstic 1,
China: Z.Chen 3, R. Chen 2, Xie 2, Cai 1, Liu 1.

China opened the match with two quick goals, but Australia answered with an 8:1 run to enter the second half leading 8:3. Early in the third quarter, the “Sharks” added three more goals to extend their advantage to 11:3, and the contest was over.

13 15th place match

South Africa – Singapore 13:14 (2:7, 4:3, 3:3, 4:1)

South Africa: B.Sneddon 3, Watt 2, R. Sneddon 2, Bowers 2, D. Sneddon 1, Kuperus 1, Neser 1, Grimett 1.
Singapore: W.Goh 3, Koh 2, M.Goh 2, Rajandra 2, Yap 1, Lok 1, Saik 1, See 1.

The encounter between the two underdogs was a rollercoaster. Both teams had ups and downs. Singapore started excellently, going to a 5:1 and a 7:2 lead in the first quarter. But, South Africa didn’t surrender and started cutting the deficit. Early in the fourth period, Loh gave Singapore a 14:9 advantage. South Africa scored the last four goals in the match, with the fourth coming two and a half minutes before the end. Still, the Africans stopped there and didn’t equalize.

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