In the gameday of the women’s U15 European Championship, favourites took victories.
The most interesting game was Italy – Croatia. In the derby, the Italian national team was better 14-13.
The biggest victory was made by Hungary against Serbia 25-4 but Spain too was very good with victory 24-6 against Israel. Greece was sure against the Netherlands 19-11.
In the lower part of the competition Czechia defeated Ukraine 18-9, Romania Ireland 11-17 and Germany Turkey 10-14.
Gameday 1
Czechia – Ukraine 18-9 (6-0, 6-4, 2-2, 4-3)
Ireland – Romania 11-17 (2-4, 3-5, 2-4, 4-4)
Turkey – Germany 10-14 (3-6, 4-3, 2-1, 1-4)
Hungary – Serbia 25-4 (5-1, 6-1, 9-0, 5-2)
Spain – Israel 24-6 (6-0, 5-0, 5-4, 8-2)
Italy – Croatia 14-13 (2-2, 4-2, 4-3, 4-6)
Greece – Netherlands 19-11 (7-4, 4-3, 5-2, 3-2)
A significant alteration has been made to the age-group championships, as all four events – U17 men and women, U15 men and women – will adopt a new playing format. Consistent with World Aquatics and their junior World Championships, the preliminary rounds of the respective European Championships will be split between higher-seeded teams and those that have qualified. The eight highest-ranked teams in each championship will be drawn into two groups of four (A and B), allowing these stronger teams to engage in a series of high-profile matches in the preliminaries. The top two ranked teams from both groups will advance directly to the quarter-finals. Simultaneously, the qualifying teams will also be categorised into two groups of four (C and D) and compete in a round-robin tournament. Subsequently, the highest-ranked teams will compete in crossover matches with the fourth-placed teams from Group A and B, while the second-ranked teams from C and D will face off against the third-ranked teams from Group A and B. The victors of these crossover matches will progress to the quarter-finals, after which the competition will continue as usual. (An exception will be made for the boys’ U15 championship, as all 26 participating teams will compete. Thus, in addition to the top eight, the remaining teams will be drawn into groups C, D, E, and F.) Therefore, only the group winners will go to the crossover round against 3rd-placed and 4th-placed teams from Division 1. From the quarterfinals, the format will be the same as for all the remaining three tournaments.
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