Greece men win historic first global crown

Final Placings

Greece
Hungary
Italy
Australia
Spain
Montenegro
Croatia
Georgia

Awards

Most Valuable Player
Stylianos Argyropoulos (GRE)

Best Goalkeeper
Panagiotis Tzortzatos (GRE)

Best Defender
Nathan Power (AUS)

Highest Goal-Scorer
Vlaho Pavlic (CRO) — 13

Match Reports

Classification 1-2

Match 12. HUNGARY 14 GREECE 15 (3-5, 3-2, 4-4, 4-4)

Greece did what no other team had done before and stood on the top of the podium of a major world event. There was silver at this event in Podgorica, Montenegro last year, an omen perhaps. However, of all the teams that have gone before them, this is the most glorious and it was thoroughly deserved and hard earned against a nation that had tasted victory four times and now has nine finals under its belt. For Greece, it was three finals for one win. Its first final was in Athens back in 1997. Tonight, Greece led for all bar half a minute in the third period. Hungary had to play catch-up throughout. Goals were raining left, right and centre with none coming without half a tonne of gelignite down the barrel. Greece led 3-1 and 5-2, closing the first quarter at 5-3 ahead. Vendel Vigvari levelled the score at six by 3:40 in the second quarter but the gargantuan Dimitrios Skoumpakis made sure Greece went to the long break ahead.

Hungary shot out to 9-8 with a 3-1 spurt but Greece had the next stage at 4-1 and went to the last quarter 11-10 ahead. Alexandros Papanastasiou took two attempts to score from the bottom right to start the fourth and Gergo Zalanki punched his in from the top right for 12-11 down. Skoumpakis came to the party with two goals from the top and his beaming smiling said it all — Smiling Assassin. Zalanki scored again and Skoumpakis uncharacteristically missed his penalty attempt. Zalanki took a six-metre, free-throw shot to narrow it to one at 2:24. Just inside the final minute, Hungary called a timeout and captain Krisztian Manhercz took it on his shoulders to equalise at 0:45. The house was in uproar, especially the huge Hungarian contingent. Greece called a timeout at 0:45 and worked the ball, earning an ejection and 18 precious seconds. The ball was like a hot potato but when it came to captain Stylianos Argyropoulos he had no compunction but to pull the trigger and send the ball cross cage into goal with 12 seconds left on the clock for 15-14. Hungary could not find the net and Greece etched its name into the record books.

Match Heroes
Skoumpakis with a magnificent five goals and goalkeeper Panagiotis Tzortzatos with 10 saves for Greece. Zalanki netted four and Manhercz three goals for Hungary.

Turning Point
Taking the 35-second lead off Hungary in the third period

Stats Don’t Lie
Greece converted six from 12 on extra and Hungary seven from 11. Greece scored the only penalty goal; they made two steals each and the shots favoured Greece 35-34.

Classification 3-4

Match 11. AUSTRALIA 10 ITALY 15 (1-2, 3-6, 4-3, 2-4)

Italy claimed its seventh medal at this level — a second bronze medal to go with one gold and four silvers. One of those silvers was in 2023. For Australia the dream was burst and there was no repeat of a podium finish when it won silver in 2018. It has also won bronze. Italy wanted to show why it has six medals from this competition, looking to add more today.

Italy wanted to show why it has six medals from this competition, looking to add more today. The Settebello scored the first two goals on counter — Francesco Cassia and Francesco Condemi — four minutes apart. The Aussie Sharks figured in the scoring picture on the buzzer when super left-hander Jacob Mercep converted extra. Italy took further control with the first two goals of the second period to Matteo Iocchi Gratta and Alessandro Balzarini on extra. Mercep replied on extra for 4-2. Giacomo Canella scored from the top on extra and Nicolas Constantin-Bicari emerged from the depth in front of goal to take the cross pass and score for 5-3 down. Canella from the top on extra and Filippo Ferrero on penalty had the four-goal margin in the bag. Mercep rammed home a third on extra and Canella followed with his third, also on extra for 8-4 at 0:16 ahead of the turn. By halftime, Australia had four from 12 and Italy five from six on extra-man attack. The tactic was working for Australia but the conversion rate was not up to Italy’s high expectations. While Italians eat and sleep water polo as full-time professionals, Aussie Sharks have to work for their dinner.

Loui Schuler scored on action for the Aussies and Canella the Magnificent fired in a one from the top of the third quarter for 9-5. Blake Edwards from deep left on extra and Condemi with a spectacular counter shot from six metres took it out to 10-6. Australia called a timeout and it led to two goals — Edwards on extra and Byrnes on action. To boot, Australia earned a penalty shot but it hit the wood. Filippo closed the period at 11-8 on extra.

Canella could not be contained and notched his fifth goal from out the top. Australia lost a challenge and afterwards Nicolas Constantin-Bicari scored twice in less than a minute for 12-10 behind. Condemi claimed one on extra and after a timeout, Tommaso Gianazza climbed high at the right post to drag down the 14-10 goal at 3:29. Another timeout for Italy for no result. However, in the dying seconds Italy gained a penalty attempt and Ferrero whipped it in for 15-10 to win the bronze.

Match Heroes
Canella was the star with five goals for the Settebello. Ferrero chipped in four and Condemi three. For the Aussies, Constantin-Bicari and Mercep made three apiece. Laurence Barker made 10 saves in goal.

Turning Point
At 4-1 in the second quarter, the writing was on the wall, even though the Sharks came back to two down on several occasions later in the match.

Stats Don’t Lie
Italy made nine from 13 on extra and Australia seven from 18 — a huge differential. Italy nailed both penalty attempts and Australia missed one. Italy took the steals eight to three and the shots 39-27.

What They Said
Marco Del Lungo (ITA) — Captain/Goalkeeper
On the medal:
“It is a very important medal for us because we worked very hard this last two months, and now this medal is more important for the guys, for the fans and for the federation. Now all we want to do is to go to a restaurant and celebrate!” 
On the opposition:
“Australia are a very different opponent in this competition; the last match against Greece we lost on mentality. Today we needed to make sure we stayed strong the whole way through the game as we know how good the Australia team can be.” 
On the 2000-strong crowd and atmosphere:
“This atmosphere is unbelievable; playing in front of this many people is very amazing. Thank you to the Australian fans, and thank you the Italian supporters for coming out for this match.”
Tim Hamill (AUS) — Head Coach
On The match:
“Certainly pleased ,but no celebrating fourth place at this particular moment. To get so close in the semifinal… it will still take some time to look forward from. But proud of how we played this week.”
“We showed in Paris some fight, some spark and some character and we’ve been missing a little bit of that since. But I think this week has shown that it’s back and really excited to where we can take this programme.”
Nathan Power (AUS) — Captain
On the loss:
“Unfortunately, today definitely wasn’t the result we wanted but if we take a step back and look at the journey that this team is on, and what we’re hoping to achieve… what we’ve been able to do this week has really laid a good platform to launch us through to 2027 World Champs in Budapest and obviously LA (Olympics 2028).
“One thing this group needed was to get more experience in these sudden-death-type games. It was obviously incredible how we performed against Spain, and yesterday with Hungary and now a new test for us was playing for a medal, which this group hasn’t done for the last few years. So, there certainly is a bit for us to learn in how to approach it, but spirits are still sky high and I can’t wait to see what we can do across the next two-year period.”

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