FINA World Youth Water Polo Championships Day 7 men’s wrap: CRO, SRB, ITA and HUN blast into semis

POLO AIR INDONESIA - Croatia, Serbia, Italy and Hungary are all guaranteed to play for a medal in the men’s competition after winning their respective quarterfinals on a thrilling Day 7.

The first two quarterfinals were contrasting fixtures with first Croatia crushing the USA 17-7 after opening up a 7-0 lead in the second quarter before the Serbians came from a goal down with less than three minutes to go to defeat Greece 9-8.

The third and fourth quarterfinals saw Italy struggle to put away Romania before winning 6-3 and Hungary proving too strong across the pool for host nation Australia, getting home 14-7.

Croatia’s victory was their fifth in succession at the tournament and they displayed the sort of form that will take a huge performance to top. They were impressive in all facets of play, particularly in extraman where they rotated between a four-two and a three-three structure.

Goalkeeper Ivan Marcelic was sensational for Croatia, Luka Bukic snared an exciting final quarter hat-trick and Antun Goreta ended the game with four to top the scoresheet.

A chuffed Croatian coach Mate Zeljak was suitably impressed by his troops.

“We expected a little bit more from the USA but you cant blame them because my boys play very well, were very motivated and I’m really proud of them,” Zeljak said.

“We tried to play hard defence and patiently in attack and the boys played at a high level.”

Zeljak singled out his ‘keeper Marcelic for extra praise.

“Our goalkeeper is a standout. He’s our captain and for years he’s making wonderful saves. He’s brilliant.”

In the see-sawing Serbia-Greece game the Serbians came from a goal down with about two and a half minute to go to firstly level at 8-8, before going ahead courtesy of thunderbolts from Dusan Mandic and Dorde Tanaskovic. Star driver Ognjen Stojanovic was the hero for Serbia with four goals, while Chrys Chrysospathis led his team’s scoring, also with four.

The first three quarters were a mirror of each other with both teams bagging two goals each term.

The Greeks threatened to pull away in the third – twice going ahead by a single goal margin – but a third to Stojanovic and another to Nikola Jaksic kept the Greeks in check.

Chrysospathis added two more in the final term to once again put Greece ahead, but the reliable arm of Stojanovic, to go with the wonder strikes from Mandic and Tanaskovic, proved too powerful.

Stojanovic, who’s three of four goals came during extra-man, said the team knew Greece was a good outfit but did not expect such a strong challenge from them.

“The game was good, but very hard. We expected to win, but we thought it would be by a bigger margin,” Stojanovic said.

“Greece is a very good team though, so I’m glad we won”.

Surprisingly to many, the plucky Romanians pushed Italy all the way in the third quarterfinal. Italy had been very impressive in the group stage of the tournament and many had expected a cakewalk but

Andrea Fondelli put his team ahead after three minutes with a penalty blast into the top left corner of the goals. The Italians settled into the contest and with goals to Gianluigi Foglio, then Fondelli again, gave them breathing space at 3-0 to complete the first quarter.

Romania got the tonic they required through an early second quarter goal to Bogdan Paleacu. The Romanians had the better of the term and made it count with a bullet from long range by Tudor Neagu just before the half, closing the gap on the Italians to one.

The Italians drought in front of goal extended to the best part of two quarters as they squandered extra man opportunities. However, Romania were having similar attacking issues and could not make any headway. Finally, Fondelli scored his third for Italy but Romania would not slink off, quickly answering with a score to Cristian Calin.

The arm wrestle continued into the final quarter with Romania attempting to score first and get the match onto an even keel. Allessandro Velotto and Vincenzo Dolce (ITA) had other ideas though working a one-two, allowing Velotto to slot home from range. Fondelli, the man who caused the Romanians the most headaches throughout, fittingly, scored his fourth to seal the game at 6-3.

Australia had the backing of a vocal home crowd but for the second night in a row – following the Aussie women’s team’s 10-3 loss to the Hungarians last night – the locals were just a step behind their opposition.

It did take the Hungarians until midway through the second period to start really asserting their authority but when they did they were lethal, employing a dynamic physical approach that crippled the fast flowing attack of the Australians.

For the victors Balint Lorincz snared with and Toni Nemet three, while rising Aussie 16-year-old Luke Pavillard also scored a treble.

Brazil and New Zealand won their respective games in the classification stage that will eventually sort out places 9-12.

The Brazilians led 5-2 at quarter time but couldn’t put the Iranians away as the lead hovered around the three goal mark until they put some more distance in over the last quarter when The final quarter saw Henrique Vasconcelo score his fourth and fifth of the match, and Pedro Stellet sealed the win with a whopping seven goals, for a 21-14 victory.

In the New Zealand versus Canada game a 5-1 third quarter blew the game apart for the Kiwis as the teams shared 3-3 first and second quarters.

Canada showed some spark to threaten at times in the last quarter but third goals of the night to Daniel Kayes and Anton Sunde saw New Zealand snuff out the last of the resistance, taking the win 14-11.

In the earlier games, Trinidad and Tobago got their first win of the tournament when they defeated Peru 13-8. Russell Ferreira and Jonathan Gillette were the heroes for Trinidad and Tobago as they netted eight goals between them to help set up a 17th v 18th playoff against South Africa tomorrow. The young Peruvian side finished 19th but will have learned plenty from the experience of playing the world’s best youth teams.

Egypt put in their best performance of the tournament to defeat Colombia 10-6 in their classification stage match that will eventually decide places 13-16. With Mostafa Mohamed a rock in goals and some smothering defence that kept Colombia’s danger men in check for much of the game the Egyptians deserved victory. Despite the four goal margin there wasn’t a lot of difference between the two teams – Egypt perhaps made better decisions and were more accurate as the shot clock wound down. They also kept, Juan Pablo Padilla, Colombia’s tournament leading scorer coming into the game, off the scoresheet until the last few minutes of the fourth term.

The Egyptians will play Uzbekistan who produced a stunning comeback to defeat neighbours Kazakhstan 9-7. The Kazakhs had led 7-4 at halftime but, inspired by the tournament’s most prolific goalscorer, Kirill Rustamov, Uzbekistan scored 1-0 and 4-0 wins in the final two terms to win through. As has been the case in all of their games, Rustamov was dynamic netting seven goals to bring his tournament total to 35