Montenegro and Serbia will compete for the gold medal at the European U18 Elite Championships in Oradea. Both finalists showcased dominant performances in their semifinal games, securing victories well before the final buzzer.
Montenegro defeated Italy 10:6 in the first semifinal. Italy managed to score five goals in the second quarter but only one in the remaining three periods.
Serbia beat Greece 20:14. Serbia’s excellent start and a 10:4 first half determined the rest of the encounter. Greece couldn’t come back.
The two neighbors took very different paths to the final. In Group B’s first round, Montenegro narrowly edged out Serbia (9:8), marking the beginning of their winning streak. Montenegro reached the final with five wins in as many games. In contrast, Serbia achieved its first victory in Oradea during the crossover round against Malta. They followed that up with a narrow win against Hungary in the quarterfinals and today’s victory in the semis.
The final match will take place tomorrow at 18:30 (CET), while the bronze-medal game between Italy and Greece is scheduled to start at 17:00.
Before these games, the standings for 5th to 8th place will also be determined. Today, Spain defeated France 16:11, and Hungary beat Croatia 18:14 in the 5th-8th place semifinals.
2025 European U18 Championships, Elite Division, Oradea, Day 6
SF Semifinals
Montenegro – Italy 10:6 (2:2, 5:5, 3:0, 0:1)
Yesterday, an excellent defensive play was key to Italy’s victory over Spain in the quarterfinals. Today, defense was crucial in the Italians’ game, but not in their favor.
Montenegro played excellently in front of its goal for almost the entire match and was building an advantage step-by-step. After a 2:0 first quarter, Todorovic gave Montenegro a 3:0 lead in the 9th minute. A minute later, Miraldi put Italy on the scoreboard from a counterattack. Montenegro reestablished a 3-goal lead (4:1, 5:2). However, Italy managed to reduce the gap to only one at the finish of the quarter (4:5, 5:6). The Montenegrins entered the second half leading 7:5.
Danilo Stupar Photo: European Aquatics
They tightened their defense in the third period, keeping the Italians far from their goal, so the Italians didn’t create many great opportunities. Early in the quarter, Gojkovic made it 8:5. After that, there were no goals for a while. In the 23rd minute, Petrovic stretched the margin to four. Danilo Stupar scored from the middle of the field in the very last second of the third quarter and the contest was over. The Montenegrins continued playing defensively, but they weren’t very aggressive in the attack. Chianese scored a consolation goal for Italy less than two minutes before the end.
Stupar scored three goals in a 10:6 win, Gojkovic found the net twice, while Chianese scored half of Italy’s six goals.
Greece – Serbia 14:20 (2:5, 2:5, 5:5, 5:5)
Both Greece and Serbia had a poor start in the Championships. They made it to the semifinals after winning thrilling quarterfinal matches against Croatia and Hungary, respectively.
Serbia began the semifinal with a great surge, taking a 4:0 lead within the first four minutes. Greece then started to recover, narrowing the gap to 2:4. However, Serbia’s Vuk Conkic scored at the end of the first period from a counterattack, bringing the score to 5:2. Drobnjakovic increased the Serbs’ lead back to four goals in their first possession of the second period. The Serbian defense, led by goalkeeper Mihailo Gosic, effectively shut down several of Greece’s man-up opportunities in the first half. Their strong defensive play and swift movements in the water allowed them to build a five-goal lead midway through the second period (7:2). By the end of the first half, Serbia extended its lead to 10:3. Greece’s captain, Chatzis, offered some encouragement for his team by scoring a lob goal for 4:10.
Mihailo Gosic (SRB) Photo: European Aquatics
During the third period, the Greeks narrowed the difference to five goals several times. At the finish of the period, while trailing 9:14, they had two possessions and nice chances to come even closer, but Gosic came up with two saves (one from a counterattack). Four seconds before the last break, Serbia forced a penalty. Neskovic converted it, and his team had a safe 15:9 advantage at the start of the final period. In the last eight minutes, Serbia maintained the difference.
Greece’s captain Chatzis was the best scorer of the match with eight goals. Angelopoulos scored four. But, two players weren’t enough in the match against Serbia, which won thanks to a team effort. Lazic and Conkic found the net four times, Zelic added three goals.
CL 5th-8th place semifinals
France – Spain 11:16 (1:5, 2:1, 4:3, 4:7)
Spain started the match with a 3:0 lead and was ahead 5:1 at the first break. It seemed like the favorite would secure an easy victory. At halftime, the teams were separated by three goals (6:3).
Nothing indicated that the French were able to come back. However, France shocked the Spaniards with an excellent start into the second half, scoring four goals in a row (two from penalty shots and two from 6 on 5s) to earn a 7:6 advantage in the 20th minute. The Spaniards responded well, with a 3:0 run and headed into the final period with a 9:7 advantage. The French halved the deficit early in the fourth quarter (8:9), but the Spaniards controlled the game. They scored four consecutive goals to earn a safe 13:8 advantage with 02:13 minutes remaining.
Spain’s Sordo and Fernandez netted four goals each, as did France’s Sordo.
Croatia – Hungary 14:18 (6:6, 5:3, 0:4, 3:5)
In a high-scoring first quarter, with a lot of exclusions, Croatia took a one-goal lead six times, but Hungary always replied with an equalizer. Midway through the second period, Hungary went ahead for the first time – 8:7. But, three and a half minutes before halftime, Hungary’s Csendes was excluded for a violent foul, and Croatia had a man-up in the following four minutes. Dujmic leveled from a penalty shot after a red card. Csech gave Hungary a 9:8 lead from a 5 on 5. Still, the Croats capitalized on a 4-minute exclusion at the finish of the quarter. They scored three goals in the last 73 seconds of the first half to build an 11:9 advantage.
Maxim Cseh (HUN) Photo: European Aquatics
After the four-minute exclusion, the Hungarians took control of the game. They overturned a 9:11 deficit to establish a 13:11 lead by scoring four unanswered goals in the third period. At the beginning of the fourth period, Dragas briefly interrupted Hungary’s scoring streak with a power-play goal, bringing the score to 12:13. However, the Hungarians maintained their momentum. Three minutes before the end of the match, they had built a five-goal lead at 18:13, effectively sealing the victory.
Mor Benedek and Maxim Csech caused a lot of trouble for the Croats, each netting six goals. As for Croatia, both Dragas and Dujmic scored four goals.
CL 9th-12th place classification
9th– place match: Germany – Malta 16:17 (0:3, 3:2, 4:3, 5:4, PSO 4:5)
11th– place match: Netherlands – Poland 18:7 (2:1, 7:2, 3:2, 6:2)
Malta and Germany faced off for the second time at the Championships in Oradea. The game entered a penalty shootout again. Just like in the group stage, Malta was better in a shootout and finished in 9th place.
The Netherlands easily defeated Poland in the 11th-place game.
DAY 7, AUGUST 24 (all times are CET)
Final: Montenegro – Serbia (18:30)
Bronze-medal game: Italy – Hungary (17:00)
5th-place match: Spain – Hungary (15:30)
7th-place match: France – Croatia (14:00)
2025 European U18 Championships, Division 1, Rio Maior, Day 6
Belgium and Israel advanced to the final, thus qualified for the Elite Division at the next edition of the European U18 Championships.
Semifinals: Belgium – Bulgaria 16:15 – PSO (11:11), Israel – Portugal 13:8
5th – 8th place classification, semifinals:Moldova – Slovakia 18:13, Lithuania – Switzerland 8:9
9th-place match: Austria – Great Britain 12:14
11th-place match: Denmark – Czech Republic 8:9
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