Eindhoven (pps) Reigning World champion Italy will play 2009 World champion Serbia in the semi-finals of the 30th Men’s European Water Polo Championships in Eindhoven on Friday in a repeat of the 2011 World Championship final, while 2008 European champion Montenegro takes on 2008 Olympic gold medallist Hungary for a place in the final.
Italy had no problem with the Germans in the quarter-finals defeating them easily 9-4. It was Italy’s fourth successive victory over Germany at Europeans since 2008 (12-6 and 9-7 in Malaga, 6-2 in Zagreb 2010). Italian captain Maurizio Felugo: “When we arrived at Eindhoven we came directly out of hard training. Now that we have only one game every other day, we are more rested and our physical condition is improving. That’s a good sign for the upcoming matches.” German head coach Hagen Stamm was clearly disappointed with his team’s performance: “Our expressed aim was to win, and it has never been so easy as today to defeat Italy. But we played like a women’s team, without any power. However, I have to admit that my team spent a lot of energy in the previous matches.”
Montenegro proved the better team in the quarter-finals defeating 2005 World bronze medallist Greece 11-9. Montenegro, then still part of Serbia, won the 2005 World title in Montreal as Serbia&Montenegro. Greece will now play Germany for fifth place on Saturday.
In the round for 7th to 12th place, FYR of Macedonia lost 12-10 to Romania and Spain thrashed Turkey 16-4. The Turks and Macedonians will battle it out for eleventh place on Friday, Spain meets host Netherlands and Romania plays 2010 European champion Croatia in the round for seventh place.
Spain and host Netherlands will also play each other for 5th place in the women’s tournament in the first match on Thursday. Hungary and reigning World champion Greece then fight for a place in the final, while title defender Russia has to defeat four-time European champion Italy in the other semi-final if they want to gain their fourth gold medal in a row and become joint record-winning European champion together with the Netherlands and Italy.
Photo (ITA_GER, Team Italy) _ Copyright DEEPBLUEMEDIA.EU/G.SCALA.
LEN Media Team