The Croatian ‘barracudas’ have a chance to lift their third European water polo title Tuesday night in Zagreb vs. Spain. Croatia are the reigning European water polo champions after winning the tournament two years ago in Split. Their first title came in 2010, which was also hosted on Croatian soil; in Zagreb. Will they make it 3/3 this week?
Croatia opened up this year’s tournament in Dubrovnik against Spain in group play. They came back from a 2-goal deficit heading into the 4th quarter to force a 9-9 draw and a penalty shootout. During the shootout, Croatia won 5-3 to take a maximum three points on the day. However, Croatia would finish 2nd behind Spain in group play after dropping points to Montenegro in a shootout later in the week.
Following group play, Croatia easily dismissed Greece 13-8 in the quarterfinals before defeating Hungary 11-8 in the semis. This past July (2023), Hungary defeated Greece in the championship match of the World Water Polo championships while Spain took 3rd place. That means if Croatia win the whole thing Tuesday night, they would have beaten the top-3 finishers from the previous tournament; held only six months ago. Not a bad measuring stick to have this year in the lead up to the 2024 summer Olympics. The European champions automatically receives a berth to Paris this summer. Only 12 men’s nations will be represented at the Olympics so a win over Spain is HUGE!
Keep the European crown AND be one of the 12 water polo nations at the Olympics.
Leading for the entire match and then very disappointing 4th quarter, we just could not score. Dalic, Corluka and Mandzo in attendance.
anyone have a streaming link?
The excitement for this match is palpable I don’t know how I’ll sleep 💤 tonight!
Pleasant dreams. I’ll be watching.