Belgrade 2026: Greece, Croatia, Italy and Romania make it two wins from two after day four action
Croatia, Greece, Italy and Romania maintained their perfect records in Belgrade with back-to-back wins at the European Championships on Tuesday. Croatia opened proceedings by sweeping Georgia aside, Greece powered past Slovenia, Italy beat a stubborn and determined Slovakia, while Romania had to fight back from 5-9 down against Türkiye to claim the three points. There was plenty to celebrate inside the arena, as the victories guaranteed all four teams a place in the second group stage.
Men’s 2026 European Water Polo Championships – Belgrade
Day 4, Tuesday 13 January
Group B
Georgia 7-18 Croatia
Slovenia 8-23 Greece
Group D
Slovakia 12-17 Italy
Romania 20-19 Türkiye
Group B
Georgia 7-18 Croatia
(2-3, 0-4, 2-5, 3-6)
The Georgians managed to take the lead and also to make life difficult for the Croats – at least in the first eight minutes. Starting at lunchtime wasn’t much to the favourites’ palate and they needed some time to gear up.
Once they found their rhythm, however, the game became rather similar to one-way traffic. The Croats didn’t only make the Georgians’ life difficult, but with their tough and aggressive defending, they completely killed their rivals’ attack.
Croatia staged a clinical 0-6 run, with leftie Konstantin Kharkov leading the charge, which ultimately decided the outcome.
The Georgians were shut out for 13:30 minutes and even though Andrija Vlahovic, born in Croatia, could put away an extra early in the third, the response from his former compatriots was fierce and precise.
Another 0-4 rush followed, as a demonstration of the huge difference in skills and stamina.
The fourth period saw the pace slow down, with neither team pushing that hard – the Georgians were running out of steam, while the Croats didn’t want to burn any reserves in a game like this.
The last 33 seconds offered something special, though. With 13 seconds remaining on the shot clock, Croatia coach Ivica Tucak called a time-out to practice a 7-on-6 under time pressure.
Their first attempt didn’t work and Georgian goalie Irakli Razmadze sent the ball into the empty net – it was a pinpoint 25m shot, worthy of any skilled outfield player.
Still, the Croats took a second chance for the final 15 seconds and this time Luka Bukic managed to beat Razmadze and the buzzer.
Group B
Slovenia 8-23 Greece
(2-7, 1-5, 2-7, 3-4)
The second game in this group was somewhat similar, though here the Greeks crashed through the gate earlier than the Croatians had done against Georgia.
Slovenia did take the lead twice, but the reply came immediately on both occasions and after 2-2 the two Dimitrioses – Nikolaidis and Skoumpakis – made sure from back-to-back possessions that the match would take its desired path.
It happened indeed, as before the first break, three more hits came in a span of 72 seconds, including two from Anastasios Papanastasiou, to give a 2-7 lead to the World Championship bronze medallists.
This 0-6 rush in the opening period made sure the Greeks would enjoy some easy cruising and they maintained a fine level at both ends of the field.
A 1-5 result in the second quarter showed they took care of business in defence, then they copied the 2-7 run in the third.
Their grip somewhat softened in the fourth (3-4), but their dominance remained.
Translated into numbers, it was quite telling that of the 38 shots they took, 33 were on target, showing how focused the Greeks were.
The 10 saves from the Slovenian goalies prevented Greece from tying – or surpassing – Spain’s single-game scoring record here in Belgrase (28 against Israel in the opening game on Day 1), but their 23 strikes are now the second-best effort in the tournament so far.
Group D
Slovakia 12-17 Italy
(2-5, 3-3, 4-5, 3-4)
In just 4:14 minutes, Italy stormed to a 0-4 lead. With their defence working flawlessly, they scored their goals with ease and appeared all set for a ‘walk-in-the-park’ kind of game.
Then the Slovaks netted back-to-back man-up goals, which gave them some hope and knocked the Italians off their stride.
They started making bad decisions, mostly in attack, and couldn’t really maintain their tight defence, which looked extremely effective at the beginning.
With 2:10 minutes remaining before the half-time break, Slovakia came back to 5-6 and the Italians found themselves in the middle of a dogfight.
Unlike the favourites, the Slovaks played with the utmost discipline, regularly finding holes in the Italian wall whenever they played man-ups – and they had some, since the Italians committed a couple of unnecessary exclusion fouls, which angered their coach, Sandro Campagna, more and more as time went by.
He had seen enough at that point and called a time-out.
Still, their rivals even had a chance to level the scores, before a lucky rebound and a counter attack goal after a turnover foul helped the Italians reset a three-goal gap, at least by half-time (5-8).
In the third quarter, a fifth goal from a man-up, then a first from action, kept Slovakia close at 7-9, then two great feeds to the centre let Lorenzo Bruni and Vincenco Dolce net a couple of calming goals in 65 seconds for 7-11.
Samuel Balaz pulled one back with a fine blast, then Edoardo di Somma stepped up, converting two man-ups with clean shots in 56 seconds to somewhat minimise the embarrassment.
Italy’s defence never regained its usual confidence and the Slovaks kept scoring in most of their six-on-fives, much to the joy of their loud fans in the stands.
Midway through the last period, the score was 11-15 – the same four-goal gap which had already been built in the first four minutes by the Italians.
Slovakia Goalie Lukas Kozmer also did a fantastic job, finishing the evening with 13 stops to counterbalance the Italians’ overwhelming dominance in total shots (28-42) and those on target (18-30).
In the end, Italy won by five, but they looked far from happy with the 12 goals they conceded, especially Campagna.
Group D
Romania 20-19 Türkiye
(4-5, 7-5, 7-5, 2-4)
These two sides produced a 39-goal epic in which the favourites Romania were unable to fend off the renewed surges of the Turks and could only secure the win in the closing minutes.
The Turkish players made the most of their chances, led by four in the first half, and kept coming back whenever they fell three goals behind in the fourth.
In the end, the Romanians’ experience prevailed, but all credit goes to the Turks for their spirited performance.
The first sharp turn in the chain of events came at 4-3, when a save seemed to have denied the Turks’ man-up, while the Romanians netted theirs at the other end for 4-4.
However, a VAR review confirmed that the ball had crossed the virtual line at the previous stop, so the scoreboard was reset, Turkey led 3-5, and that triggered more unexpected developments.
The Romanians grew tense, while the Turkish players caught a wave and staged a 0-3 rush at the start of the second quarter, which included a double from Selcuk Caner in a span of 15 seconds to lead 4-8.
Andrei-Radu-Ionut Neamtu kept Romania above water, scoring from a man-up, then came the other master sharpshooter, Vlad-Luca Georgescu, whose wrist shots brought the Romanians back to life.
After a while, it turned into a Wild West showdown – defences and goalies didn’t have much to say in this no-load, just-shoot contest, where the Romanians’ skills started to make the difference.
After 5-9, the favourites scored three in a row and even though Caner put away another extra for 8-10, Neamtu and Francesco Iudean netted three more in 84 seconds to turn the tide by half-time, as Romania led 11-10.
They scored six goals in the last four minutes of the period and looked to have retaken control.
However, the five-minute break somewhat slowed the Romanians down and Caner levelled it up 1:40 into the third.
Georgescu came up with two brilliant shots in 46 seconds, but the Romanians were unable to hold firm at the back.
The Turks always kept finding a way to score, though they also had misses in a couple of crucial situations, such as a man-up at 14-13.
They paid for those misses, as the Romanians netted two in just 19 seconds to lead by three for the first time.
Caner hit his sixth late in the third, but a counter and a fine finish from Matei-Ioan Lutescu restored the three-goal gap at 18-15, 21 seconds before the final break.
Still, it was far from over. After two minutes of the fourth, benefiting from back-to-back man-ups, Kaan Oguzcan pulled one back once more for the Turks, and despite a brilliant 6m goal from Georgescu, the Romanians were still unable to play with calm.
Two more defensive errors followed and Türkiye’s players were back breathing down their necks at 19-18 with 3:44 minutes to play.
They didn’t seem to tire, earned a man-up soon after, but Efe Naipoglu missed a glorious chance to tie the scores.
The Turks had another possession to equalise, but a turnover foul was called and Iosif-Darian Luncen finished off the ensuing counter to make it 20-18 with 1:34 on the clock.
A great block from Neamtu killed the Turks’ last real chance during a man-up, and when Türkiye got the ball back, only 36 seconds remained.
After a time-out, they netted a fine goal from a 7-on-6, but with just 21 seconds left the Romanians kept possession and secured all three points.
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Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics
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