Belgrade 2026: Race for semi-finals heats up as Greece, Italy and Croatia win big on day eight

Day 8 of the men’s European Water Polo Championships in Belgrade delivered drama and high entertainment, opening with a spectacular 30-goal contest between Italy and Georgia. Italy appeared to have the match under control with a six-goal cushion late in the third quarter, yet Georgia showed great resolve, continuing to pressure their rivals right up to the final buzzer. Later, Greece asserted their authority with an emphatic victory over Türkiye, while Croatia’s quality was on display as they overpowered Romania.

Men’s 2026 European Water Polo Championships – Belgrade
Day 8, Saturday 17 January

Group Stage II

Group F

Georgia 14-16 Italy
Greece 20-8 Türkiye
Croatia 17-9 Romania

Classification 13th-16th

Slovenia 11-11 (3-4P) Israel
Slovakia 11-20 Malta

Group F

Georgia 14-16 Italy
(2-2, 4-6, 4-6, 4-2)

Georgia produced a spirited display, arguably their strongest-ever performance at the Europeans against a top opponent, pushing Italy for all four periods before eventually going down by two goals.

The match developed into a 30-goal thriller, heavily influenced by a four-minute ejection shortly before half-time, yet the Georgians showed remarkable resilience, refusing to collapse despite playing a man down and trailing by six late in the third quarter.

They stood firm in the opening period while Italy appeared to struggle for focus. An early missed penalty was an initial warning sign and, although the Italians took the lead, they were soon chasing an equaliser after two excellent Georgian finishes.

Francesco Condemi levelled with 1:14 remaining, and after Georgia missed a man-up opportunity, the score remained 2-2 at the end of the first quarter.

Three minutes into the second period it was still deadlocked at 5-5. Italy scored first on three occasions, but could not prevent Georgia from responding each time.

After an early burst of goals, there was a brief lull before Edoardo di Somma finished a counter-attack. Just 23 seconds later, Saba Tkeshelashvili answered with a powerful strike from six metres.

Georgia then had a man-up to take the lead, but a steal at centre was ruled legal by the referees and Lorenzo Bruni converted Italy’s six-on-five to edge the Settebello ahead, 6-7.

What followed raised eyebrows. Georgia lost a challenge, the first half ended with Italy still leading 6-7 and the teams swapped ends.

However, after a VAR review, the referees made the teams swap back, reset the clock to 0:24 and issued a red card to Nika Shushiashvili for brutality and a penalty to Italy.

The decision proved pivotal. Filippo Ferrero converted the resulting 5m shot, and after a short break to change ends once again, and a pair of missed chances, Condemi struck again from six-on-five to stretch the lead to 6-9 early in the third.

Georgia responded bravely. Andria Bitadze scored with a backhand from the centre and, although Italy converted their next two man-up situations, Georgia forced a five-on-four which Dusan Vasic finished to make it 8-11.

With Italy conceding their second goal during the four-minute power play, head coach Sandro Campagna called a time-out.

The pause worked. Italy lifted their attacking efficiency, earned two penalties within 37 seconds and converted both to open up an 8-13 advantage.

Georgia, back at full strength, missed a man-up and the gap soon grew to six when Alessandro Balzarini scored Italy’s next six-on-five.

Dusan Vasic and Valiko Dadvani pulled two goals back before the final break, and Andrija Vlahovic added another from a man-up just 41 seconds into the fourth quarter.

Italy struggled to regain offensive rhythm, while the Georgian defence held firm, backed by several fine saves from Irakli Razmadze.

When Stefan Pjesivac finished from centre to reduce the deficit to 12-14 with 3:46 remaining, the favourites were no longer entirely comfortable.

Another red card followed, this time during a standard man-up, and Lorenzo Bruni converted at the second attempt to restore some breathing room.

Marco del Lungo produced a save during a double man-down, but could not stop Veljko Tankosic’s powerful 6m shot with 1:58 remaining.

Georgia had one final chance to close the gap to a single goal, but a turnover led to Bruni’s fifth goal on the counter, effectively sealing the outcome.

Pjesivac scored again with 56 seconds left to play, but it was too late, and a missed six-on-four near the end summed up a valiant Georgian effort that ultimately fell just short.

Group F

Greece 20-8 Türkiye
(6-3, 6-1, 4-3, 4-1)

Aside from a brief wobble in the opening quarter, Greece were firmly in control throughout against Türkiye and took another significant step towards securing a semi-final place.

The Greeks needed just four minutes to establish a commanding 4-0 lead, only for it to be cut back in little more than two minutes.

Türkiye responded strongly, pulling two goals back with a centre finish and a man-up strike. A successful challenge in a heated situation then wiped out a Greek goal, allowing Türkiye to earn a penalty, which Yusa Duzenli buried to make it 4-3.

Any suggestion the contest might develop into a battle similar to Georgia’s resistance against Italy was quickly dispelled by what followed.

Türkiye had back-to-back man-up opportunities to level the score, but failed to capitalise.

Greece punished those misses when Konstantinos Kakaris was found clear on the 2m line in a six-on-five and scored with just 0:09 remaining in the quarter.

The drama was not over, however. A disastrous restart saw the Türkish goalkeeper stray forward inexplicably, lose possession, and allow Efstathios Kalogeropoulos to put the ball in the empty net.

The two goals in rapid succession (eight seconds separated the two strikes) were the quickest back-to-back strikes seen at the championships so far, possibly even in the event’s century-long history.

Greece took a further three minutes to fully regain momentum, during which Duzenli scored again from action, but once the favourites settled, they pulled away decisively.

Two goals in 48 seconds stretched their lead to 8-4, and four more followed before the long break.

The final three of those strikes came inside 75 seconds, sending Greece into half-time with a commanding 12-4 advantage.

The tempo eased after the interval. Having scored six goals in each of the opening two quarters, Greece added four in both the third and fourth, yet still reached the 20-goal mark by the final buzzer.

Papanastasiou and Kalogeropoulos delivered outstanding performances, both finishing with flawless shooting records of 6-from-6 and 5-from-5 respectively.

Greece now turn their attentions to a crucial clash with Italy on Monday, where even a shootout defeat would be enough to confirm their place in the semi-finals.

Group F

Croatia 17-9 Romania
(5-1, 1-2, 5-3, 6-3)

Croatia were forced to work hard to break down Romania’s defence before pulling clear decisively in the second half.

They made an impressive start, combining rock-solid defence with sharp finishing to race into a 4-0 lead inside just over five minutes.

Romania eventually opened their account from a penalty after seven minutes, but Zvonimir Butic replied with Croatia’s fourth action goal, this time from the centre, to give his side a 5-1 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

When Marko Zuvela struck the crossbar with an early penalty in the second period, few expected it to signal a brief dip in Croatia’s rhythm.

Zuvela soon atoned for his miss with a six-on-five goal midway through the quarter, but they couldn’t add any more before half-time.

Romania took advantage, with a powerful strike from Andrei Neamtu reducing the deficit to 6-3 shortly before the long break.

Well-worked action goals from Butic and Luka Bukic helped restore control for Croatia at 8-3, but Romania refused to fold as they had against Italy.

They continued to answer Croatia’s goals and remained within striking distance at 10-6 late in the third quarter, with goalkeeper Marius-Florin Tic producing several excellent saves.

Romania even had a six-on-five opportunity to cut the gap to three, but a poorly placed effort was punished at the other end.

With just two seconds left on the clock, Butic finished a superb counter-attack after a Romanian exclusion to make it 11-6 instead of a potential 10-7.

That decisive moment effectively wiped out Romania’s hard work across the middle two periods and gave Croatia a major boost.

The favourites capitalised in the fourth quarter, scoring four goals in 2:43 to stretch their lead to 15-8 with nearly five minutes remaining, before cruising to a convincing victory.

Croatia’s fate, however, will be decided in the final game of Group Stage II on Wednesday when they face Italy.

Classification 13th-16th

Slovenia 14-15 Israel
(3-2, 1-3, 4-3, 3-3, 3-4P)

Israel claimed their first points at these Europeans, while Slovenia were involved in another shootout for the second time in as many days – though, unlike the previous day against Slovakia, this time they lost on penalties.

Just like Friday’s opening classification game, when only a single goal separated the teams at the end of regular time, this encounter produced another tight battle.

Slovenia took the lead four times in the first half, but Israel managed to level each time and, with 49 seconds to go, Amir Shafrir put them ahead at 4-5, which was also the half-time score.

From that point, Israel never trailed again and, with two goals in 59 seconds, they jumped to a 5-7 lead midway through the third quarter. However, the Slovenians finished strongly, scoring twice in 41 seconds to tie the game at 8-8 before the final break.

After a quick exchange of goals and plenty of physical battling, Ronen Gros’ outstanding action goal restored Israel’s advantage at 9-10.

After killing a man-down situation, they had a match ball to seal the win, but missed their extra-player chance, and Jasa Kadivec equalised from a six-on-five with 1:21 remaining.

The final minute delivered more drama. Or Schlein converted Israel’s man-up, but Slovenia again forced an exclusion and Kadivec struck once more, 27 seconds from time, to make it 11-11.

The outcome was decided by penalties, where the Slovenians’ hero, Kadivec, missed first.

Israel were one shot away from victory, but Jure Beton – who had made two saves the previous day against Slovakia – kept Slovenia alive in the final round.

That reprieve proved short-lived, however, as Yahav Fire denied Nace Stromajer to secure the win for Israel.

Slovakia 11-20 Malta
(4-4, 4-7, 1-3, 2-6)

Malta moved three points clear in the classification “mini-tournament” after overpowering Slovakia. Following three extremely evenly matched contests between the teams, this encounter turned one-sided in the second half.

The Slovaks were clearly struggling, still reeling from their elimination by Türkiye in the group phase. They had somehow pushed their previous match against Slovenia to a shootout, but it came at a price, losing their leading player Lukas Durik to a red card.

As a result, they were forced to face Malta without their giant Recco forward, significantly limiting their attacking options.

Slovakia managed to stay competitive for one and a half periods, before Malta struck with consecutive goals to go 5-8 ahead.

The Slovaks briefly rallied during a frantic finish to the half, when six goals were scored in just 1:43, but Malta still held a three-goal cushion at the break, leading 8-11.

Liam Galea found the net from open play after just 20 seconds of the third quarter, and it soon became clear that Slovakia were running out of steam.

They showed resilience defensively by killing three man-down situations, but at the other end they could not capitalise, squandering several chances, including a missed six-on-five.

Malta added two more goals in the final three minutes of the third period, while Matej Caraj scored Slovakia’s only goal of the quarter from a man-up, leaving them five behind heading into the final eight minutes.

With Steven Camilleri leading the way and scoring six goals, the Maltese overwhelmed their opponents with a four-goal burst in just three minutes of the fourth quarter to surge to a 9-20 lead.

Slovakia managed to add two late consolation goals in the final minute, but they left the pool well beaten.

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Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics

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