Spain repeated its 2023 effort from Los Angeles by winning its second World Cup crown, this time downing Greece 16-14 in a hotly contested final. Hungary triumphed in a penalty shootout to defeat Croatia 18-15 after drawing 14-14 in the bronze-medal encounter. Montenegro pipped Netherlands 15-14 for fifth place and Germany overcame Japan 16-11 for seventh classification.
FINAL CLASSIFICATIONS
1. Spain
2. Greece
3. Hungary
4. Croatia
5. Montenegro
6. Netherlands
7. Germany
8. Japan
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BONUS
The first three teams from Podgorica automatically qualify for the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore this July.
The three teams — Spain, Greece and Hungary — failed to qualify via the Paris Olympics, so needed this week to make it to Singapore. In the draw, Spain fits into the top line with Serbia, Croatia and United States of America. Greece and Hungary land in the second batch. Montenegro qualified via the European Championships, as did Italy and Romania.
The draw for the championships will be made in the new Aqua office in Budapest on May 7.
Classification 1-2
Match 12, GREECE 14 SPAIN 16 (4-2, 4-6, 2-4, 4-4)
Spain stood tall when needed and survived a heart-stopping final few moments when star goalkeeper Unai Aguirre was evicted from the pool after scoring what was a match-winning length-of-the-pool goal. There was pandemonium when Greece when on all-out attack, bringing up the goalkeeper when three goals down and less than two minutes remaining. The ploy backfired as the shot was saved and Aguirre took the ball and skipped it the 25 metres into the open goal for 16-12. The referees took offence at something Aguirre did and the actions of Greece’s Dimitrios Nikolaidis — both gaining a red card. No matter, Spain was unbeatable at this stage.
It was not that easy early on as Greece had the power and the team to go one better than it has achieved before. Spain led 2-1, but Greece hammered in three goals to go into the second quarter with a healthy 4-2 advantage. This was nullified within two minutes of the second quarter. Greece went ahead again but Marc Valls and Alvaro Granados gave Spain the edge. Nikolaos Gkillas turned brilliantly in the deep-right position for his second goal and the equaliser. Unai Biel stepped up on extra and Stylianos Argyropoulos traded extra-man goals. Granados scored a second penalty goal and Argyropoulos took a six-metre foul shot from eight metres for the 8-8 score, three seconds from halftime.
Konstantinos Genidounias converted a penalty for a Greek lead, only for Granados to score a third penalty goal and then a shot from the top on extra for 10-9. Biel scored twice more and Spain had a three-goal advantage. Argyropoulos scored a penalty goal to close the period two down. Argyropoulos opened the fourth on action but quickly afterwards Bernat Sanahuja converted extra from the top. Fran Valera made it another three-goal margin. Argyropoulos almost had his penalty shot stopped, but it spun over the line for 14-12 at 5:09. Sergi Cabanas grabbed his second goal for 15-12 and then Aguirre made it 16-12 before his ignominious departure. Konstantinos Kakaris snared a goal from centre forward off a cross pass and Efstathios Kalogeropoulos converted a penalty for 16-14, 15 seconds from full time when Spain was celebrating victory.
Match Heroes
Granados (above) claimed the tournament’s most valuable player award with his standout performance, scoring four goals — three from penalty — for a tournament-high 17 from three matches. Biel stood up for three goals and Aguirre had a tournament-best 16 saves. For Greece, Argyropoulos was best with five goals (14 in total) and captain Genidounias chimed in with three.
Turning Point
Greece’s 4-2 start, then the four-goal surge by Spain in the third period that set up a three-goal lead.
Stats Don’t Lie
Spain could only score three from nine on extra while Greece nailed four from eight. Greece scored five penalty goals to Spain’s three. Spain made seven steals to three and Greece shot 36 to 31, leaving Greece with excellent statistics but no gold medal.
Bottom Line
Spain knows what it is like to win this tournament and becomes the sixth nation to win it multiple times. Greece has lost two finals with the first against United States of America in 1997.
Classification 3-4
Match 11, HUNGARY 18 CROATIA 15 in penalty shootout (FT: 14-14. Pens: 4-1)
In a rarity under the new rules, a penalty shootout was required to find the winner of the bronze medal. Hungary trumpeted the victory for a third bronze medal at this level to go with four golds and four silvers. It would be true to say that Hungary knows how to play finals. For Croatia, it has to rest on the laurels of silver and bronze, the latter coming in 2014 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Croatia started the scoring with Hungary going 2-1 ahead before Croatia led 3-2. Two of the undoubted stars of the tournament, Hungarian captain Krisztian Manhercz and Croatia’s Loren Fatovic both scored for a Croatian 4-3 advantage at the first break. The pair scored again in the second quarter as the match was squared at five and six. Zvonimir Butic and Duje Pejkovic — finding a free position on the bottom left — produced the first two-goal lead for Croatia. Zsombar Vismeg scored his second of the quarter to 8-7 behind, five seconds from the halftime buzzer.
Gergely Burian equalised two and a half minutes into the third quarter. Vlaho Pavlic and Adam Nagy traded goals for 9-9 and it became Hungary’s turn for a two-goal advantage, thanks to Manhercz on counter and Gergo Fekete from the deep right. Fatovic found the 37-year-old master Luka Loncar in a centre-forward sweep shot to narrow the margin well before the final break.
Pavlic flipped the ball over his head to Fatovic who scored the opening goal of the fourth period. Big Krisztian Bedo took advantage of a long cross pass to the left-post position to edge the Magyars out by one. Pavlic converted extra and David Tatrai and Vince Vigvari gave Hungary a 14-12 lead. Fatovic converted a penalty at 2:13 and nearly a minute later he found Loncar at centre forward again to sweep home the equaliser at 1:27. Hungary called a timeout and had three shots with no success, thanks to goalkeeper Marko Bijac. Croatia called a timeout at 0:20, but no joy with the scoring attempt, sending the match to a shootout.
Hungary shot first with Manhercz and Fatovic scoring. Vendel Vigvari, Tatrai and Adam Nagy all scored while Croatia’s Pavlic and Lazic both had their attempts smothered by Kristof Csoma, gifting Hungary the shootout 4-1 and an 18-15 victory.
Match Heroes
Captain Manhercz topped the Hungarian scoring with three and goalkeeper Csoma dragged down 10 saves, let alone the two penalty shots in the shootout. Croatia’s Fatovic finished with four and veteran Loncar three and goalkeeper/captain Bijac saved nine shots.
Turning Point
There were so many twists and turns with both teams having two-goal advantages at some stage. Really, it came down to the goalkeeping of Csoma in the shootout.
Stats Don’t Lie
Hungary went seven from 12 on extra and Croatia only seven from 16 chances. Hungary missed its sole penalty shot and Croatia made two. The steals favoured Croatia 4-2 as did the overall shots at 40-34.
Bottom Line
Hungary has the medals in this competition and while both teams were composed throughout, the mental toughness in a shootout helped Hungary prevail.
Classification 5-6
Match 10, NETHERLANDS 14 MONTENEGRO 15 (3-1, 3-4, 4-5, 4-5)
Montenegro pulled off a last-gasp victory over Netherlands in a match that was levelled at six, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 before Nikola Moskov (above) unleashed a missile from a six-metre throw with less than eight seconds on the clock. Netherlands was the controlling force for much of the earlier part of the match, going 2-0, 4-2 and 6-4 up. Even at 6-6, the Dutch were unrattled, going out to 8-6 and 9-7 before Vladan Spaic dragged one in off the right-post position for 9-9.
Montenegrin head coach Dejan Savic had confidence in his team and looked unflustered as his charges stuck to the game plan and took the shots that mattered. The Dutch were 3-1 up at the quarter — the lowest-scoring quarter here. The advantage was trimmed to one by halftime at 6-5. After that 8-6 advance, Montenegro chipped back to 9-9 and levelled again at 10 when Balsa Vuckovic took his chance with a six-metre-foul throw two seconds from the buzzer for the equaliser.
Sebastian Hessels took over from Kas te Riele, who is making a real name for himself in Podgorica, scoring five of the Dutch goals by 9-8. Hessels drilled from the top to give Netherlands the 11-10 advantage. Then Aljosa Macic scored from the left-post position and Duro Radovic nailed his third goal from the deep right on extra for Montenegro’s first lead at 4:42 in the last quarter. Mart van der Weijden put away the penalty goal and Radovic scored on counter for another Montenegro lead. Tom de Weerd scored from the bottom right for 13-13 at 2:15 and Macic received a rocket cross pass from Radovic to score from the left post at 1:40. Savic called a timeout but the shot found the body of the goalkeeper. Into the last minute and Dutch captain Bilal Gbadamassi stunned the crowd with the shot from the top right at just 22 seconds. Unphased, Montenegro went on attack and Moskov took a foul at eight metres, collected the ball and rifled it into goal for the winner with seven seconds remaining.
It was noted that only 12 Montenegrin players made the start sheet for the home team as four players were ill from possibly eating seafood. The victory was all the more meritorious.
Match Heroes
Radovic scored three as nine Montenegro players made the sheet. For the Dutch, van der Weijden and te Riele scored five each and goalkeeper Miki Buitenhuis pulled in 11 saves.
Turning Point
Spaic’s 9-9 goal made the difference. That and Moskov’s brilliant last-gasp assault.
Stats Don’t Lie
Netherlands had the better of the extra-man plays, converting six from seven and denying Montenegro nine from 15. This was instrumental in keeping the score so close. Netherlands sent in all three penalty attempts and Montenegro one. The Dutch stole the ball 10 to six and even shot 35 to 34, but still lost the match.
Bottom Line
The Dutch deserved victory. It would have been the icing on the cake for an excellent tournament, to come from Division Two and go so close to fifth position. Montenegro hung in there for the duration and thoroughly earned the victory.
Classification 7-8
Match 9, JAPAN 11 GERMANY 16 (2-4, 2-5, 4-3, 3-4)
Except for a 30-second period in the opening quarter, Germany was not headed. Coming from 2-1 down, Germany had the match in hand by the first break, converting that two-goal margin into five at halftime and four at the final break. Japan pulled within two in the final quarter, but Germany finished with a flourish.
While Japan was crafting a 2-1 lead, Germany’s Zoran Bozic was scheming a way to nullify the Japanese. This he did with the first three German goals, all from the top. Yannek Chiru made it 4-2 at the break and scored the first goal of the second quarter. Goals were traded to 7-4 before Niclas Schipper on extra and Denis Strelezkij with a short drive had the score at 9-4 and the latter had two goals in the bag.
Bozic opened the second half from the top and Germany was six goals ahead — the handsomest margin of the match. Japan struck back with four unanswered goals with newcomer Yuki Moriya opening his international account from the deep left, followed by Taiyo Watanabe from the penalty line and two Mitsuru Takata goals for 10-8 — the second from a rebounded ball. Germany called a timeout to slow the Japanese momentum and Mark Gansen sent one in from a six-metre shot. Schipper taunted the Japanese keeper from centre forward before making it 12-8 at 1:26 of the third period.
Watanabe and Moriya opened the final period; Schipper replied from centre forward and captain Yusuke Inaba scored from the deep left for 13-11 and within striking distance of levelling at 4:34. Strelezkij scored a penalty goal; Aleks Sekulic buried his second and Bozic finished the scoring at 2:44, also from the penalty line.
Match Heroes
Bozic was the star with his five goals for Germany with Strelezkij and Schipper finished with three each. Goalkeeper Felix Benke was best in pool with his 13 saves. Inaba topped the Japanese scoring with three and the two goalkeepers combined for 11 saves with Ren Sasano getting eight.
Turning Point
While the Dutch were flying, Japan struggled here and losing the 2-1 advantage to 5-2 down and then 10-4 at the start of the third, made it hard to come back.
Stats Don’t Lie
Both teams produced three from four on extra; both scored their penalty attempts at two for Germany and one for Japan, while Japan stole the ball 15 times to 13 — a first time to win this stat in Podgorica — and Germany shot 36 to 35.
Bottom Line
Germany worked hard for the victory and managed to master the Japanese style.