Belgrade 2026: Hungary’s shootout success sends them to semi-finals, as title-holders Spain eliminated

Spain’s reign as European champions ended amid high drama as Hungary edged a classic on penalties, a contest that felt every inch a final before the semi-finals had even begun. The night belonged to Soma Vogel, the Hungarian goalkeeper producing a throwback performance by saving four penalties in total – two in regular time and two in the shootout – to tilt a knife-edge contest decisively his side’s way. Elsewhere, Serbia, who were already safely through as group winners, tasted defeat at the hands of Dejan Savic’s Montenegro. It was the hosts’ first ever loss at a European Championships held in Belgrade, across the 2006, 2016 and 2026 editions. Earlier, France’s victory over the Netherlands was built on an outstanding display from goalkeeper Hugo Fontani and some trademark rockets from captain Thomas Vernoux.

Men’s 2026 European Water Polo Championships – Belgrade
Day 11, Tuesday 20 January

Group Stage II

Group E

Netherlands 10-14 France
Spain 11-11 (3-4P) Hungary
Serbia 13-15 Montenegro

Group Stage II

Group E

Netherlands 10-14 France
(1-3, 2-2, 2-4, 5-5)

France came up with a strong performance – delivering a nice birthday present to their head coach Vjekoslav Kobescak – while the Netherlands were unable to reach their previous levels, which had seen them stun the Serbians and force a close battle with Hungary.

The French will now play the 9th/10th final on Thursday, while the Dutch head to the 11th/12th classification game.

Captain Thomas Vernoux let the ball fly twice in the first three minutes and his huge blasts gave the French a 0-2 lead.

The Dutch were struggling with their shots and as time went by, it became more and more obvious their shocking defeat against Montenegro was having long-lasting effects.

After leading by three and then going through a complete meltdown when the Montenegrins staged a 0-7 run, this was perhaps too much to handle for most of the players with less international experience, especially at this stage of the tournament when almost two weeks had passed.

Their first goal came after five minutes, from a penalty, called in a dying man-up (they missed the previous three), but shortly before the buzzer a steal and fast put-away by Vernoux reset the two-goal gap.

Jorrit van der Weijden finally could send the ball behind Hugo Fontani from action, but it was a rare exception as the French goalie delivered one save after the other.

The following three possessions all ended in a goal, the last one came from Vernoux again, his fourth, which kept France in front at 3-5.

Though there were almost five minutes to play until the big break, the score remained unchanged as neither side could create clear chances and the goalies also did great – especially Fontani, who amounted 10 saves by half-time.

Again, two fast goals at the beginning, followed by some battling, kicked off the third, and after a time-out, Kilian Braise-Fernandez converted an extra for 4-7.

The next Dutch goal in a man-up was disallowed for blocking the defender and Vernoux used the small space he had at the other end to put the French up by four with 3:28 on the clock.

Though Bilal Gbadamassi pulled one back with a powerful centre shot, there was no one who was able to stop Vernoux – when not the most skilled and strong defender tried to guard him, the French superman immediately moved into position and launched another unstoppable rocket.

France led 5-9 with his six goals and it was hard to see a comeback from the Netherlands.

Especially after 16 seconds into the fourth, when Mathis Mas quickly sent the ball home from a six-on-five for 5-10.

The Dutch managed to find the back of the net in the following minutes, but the French kept replying, so the gap was still four goals when only four minutes remained in the game.

A saved penalty and Sebastian Hessels’ fine finish in a man-up gave a little hope for the Dutch two minutes later, but their next possession ended in a steal and Gbadamassi’s extra-man hit for 10-12 came when only 44 seconds remained.

The French called a time-out – though not by Kobescak, who had been sent off with a red card a couple of minutes earlier – and the Dutch used that to send seven field players in to attempt a steal and pass the ball to the seventh unmarked player, but it didn’t work.

Mas sent the ball into the empty net 14 seconds later. Then the Dutch seven-on-six was killed too and one more ball was sent into the empty net, by Alexis Drahe, to seal France’s second win in Belgrade.

Group Stage II

Group E

Spain 11-11 (3-4P) Hungary
(3-3, 2-2, 3-3, 3-3, 3-4P)

Hungary won an absolute thriller and ousted title-holders Spain in the last round of Group Stage II in a match which was practically a quarter-final, as the loser was to miss the semis.

It was an extremely exciting battle where the Hungarians led almost all the way, and even though the Spaniards once managed to go ahead early in the fourth, the Magyars hit back.

A buzzer-beater from Sergi Cabanas saved the match for a shootout, but there came Soma Vogel who, after a while, returned with his magical stops to send Hungary to the top four.

A quick counter with a sharp finish by Krisztian Manhercz kicked off the battle, then the Spaniards equalised through Alvaro Granados’ penalty.

Then both sides missed man-ups before the Magyars earned a penalty and Manhercz buried that too. Just 45 seconds later, the Magyars had another counter and they played it all the way to Szilard Jansik, who had a clean shot for 1-3.

Though the Spanish shooters didn’t bring their best to the game so far, they managed to convert at least every second extra they had, and that brought them back to even as Roger Tahull and Sergi Cabanas both were on target for 3-3.

The Hungarians missed their fourth extra early in the second quarter, then Gergo Fekete’s smart shot from 6m sent them ahead once more.

Bernat Sanahuja had an easy put-away in a six-on-four, then the Spanish earned a penalty, but Soma Vogel headed out Sanahuja’s shot, while Akos Nagy faked his way towards the goal and sent a fierce shot under the arm of Unai Aguirre, who was yet to have a save in the game, for 4-5.

Vogel had more to offer as in a span of 64 seconds he stopped Granados’ penalty too – though this time Biel hit one from the perimeter right away after the corner, still in a man-up, which definitely diminished the psychological impact.

The remaining two minutes were devoted to great defending, so still nothing separated the sides at half-time at 5-5.

As a change in trends, Akos Nagy buried the Magyars’ first man-up in the third and after a block killed the Spanish six-on-five, the Hungarians forced a penalty in their next six-on-five and Vendel Vigvari made no mistake to double their lead.

Marc Larumbe stepped up from Spain’s next extra, but later he was thrown out with a red card for unnecessary roughness.

Still, the Hungarians returned to their bad habits, as Manhercz failed to put the ball away from back-to-back man-ups.

In contrast, Sanahuja sent a great shot to the net from the perimeter for 7-7, and compared to how hard the teams were having to fight to score so far, this was an easy action goal.

Soon, Eduardo Lorrio, who came in after the seventh Hungarian goal, made his third save in a row, again in a man-down, but this time it was a really huge one.

Sanahuja’s shot hit the crossbar in Spain’s six-on-five and then Zsombor Vismeg’s shot in a dying possession somehow ended up in the net as Lorrio pulled it in after sinking back from the save.

But it was still a tie after three periods as Biel had an easy finish in a six-on-four with 0:05 on the clock.

Early in the fourth, another youngster from the Magyars, Vince Varga, tried his luck from the perimeter and this time the goalie couldn’t do much, but Cabanas also sent the ball home from a man-up, then he added another in 71 seconds, this time from the left wing, again in a six-on-five, and Spain led for the first time in the match.

Last year, when Hungary lost five in a row to the Spaniards, in the last four the script was always the same – the Magyars led, then the Spanish turned it around in the fourth.

Not this time, though, as Adam Nagy kept his calm and blasted one from their next man-up after a time-out for 10-10, with five minutes remaining.

That led to an all-in battle. Akos Nagy missed a crucial open shot in the next man-up, then the Spanish sharpshooters let the ball fly but neither of them could hit the target.

After one of the misses, the Magyars stormed back down the pool and despite a couple of blocks, Akos Nagy sent a great lob to the net with 2:18 to go.

The remaining time somewhat showed why Spain were to lose this game. Granados took the last two shots, both in man-ups – the first hit the crossbar, the second was well saved by Vogel (he had 10 catches in the game), and with 39 seconds to go, the Magyars seemed to have it.

But even if they burned their time, Spain still had 11 seconds, and Cabanas, the only player who was showing something extra, sent an incredible lob to the net to beat the buzzer and force a shootout.

Many recalled how Spain survived the semis against Greece at the Worlds with a buzzer-beater – but this story ended differently, courtesy of Soma Vogel.

He has been the nemesis of plenty of teams, whether they faced Hungary or Champions League winners FTC-Telekom – until the bronze medal match of the Paris Olympics, the goalie delivered only wins in shootouts.

On 11 August 2024, the streak ended against the Americans and since then he lost three more with his teams and barely touched the ball when penalties were called against them during the season.

This changed on Tuesday night inside the Belgrade Arena.

After having two penalty saves in regular time, he came up with two more, and despite Aguirre, who came in for the shootout, also having a stop in the second round, the last three Hungarians all buried their attempts while Vogel denied Biel in the third (and stopped Sanahuja’s in the second), which sent the Magyars to the semis.

Hungary stayed on course, having missed the semi-finals only once since 1993, while Spain’s big run of making the podium in 11 majors and reaching the last four at every European Championship since 2018 came to an abrupt end.

Group E

Serbia 13-15 Montenegro
(6-5, 4-3, 2-4, 1-3)

With the previous contest ending in a shootout, not even for the Serbs did this game have anything at stake as they finished on top of their group anyway, while the Montenegrins couldn’t move from 4th place.

Accordingly, a shooting contest erupted in the first period where almost all attempts ended in the net.

Defences weren’t in combat mood, and the goalies had little chance without much support.

The Serbs did somewhat better after all, scoring three in a row after 3-4, but Balsa Vuckovic netted two seconds from time to pull one back for 6-5.

Early in the second, the hosts jumped to a two-goal lead again in a span of 44 seconds, but the young Montenegrins kept fighting.

Miroslav Perkovic put away an extra and since their goalie Petar Tesanovic met the ball more and more, Jovan Vujovic levelled it at 8-8.

Still, more man-ups arrived for Serbia and Vasilije Martinovic converted two of them, while the Montenegrins ran out of ideas until half-time, so the fans enjoyed what they saw on the scoreboard, a 10-8 lead.

The Serbs had a six-on-five to go up by three, but missed it, while Dmitrii Kholod sent the ball home at the other end.

The hosts somewhat missed a gear, also key players sat out to rest for the remainder of the tournament, and after another wasted extra, Marko Mrsic equalised from action for 10-10.

Djordje Lazic finally broke the ice from close range after 5:23 minutes, but Mrsic fired one in from 6m and they had the reply to Mandic’s penalty shot when Strahinja Gojkovic sent another pinpoint shot from a man-up 12 seconds from time, for 12-12.

Mandic converted an extra right away in the fourth, then the Serbs had four more man-ups, practically in their next four possessions.

But the Montenegrin defenders worked like hell and killed all of them, Tesanovic was also splendid in the process and at the other end, Danilo Stupar’s brilliant lob tied it at 13-13 with 3:10 remaining.

And the story rolled on – man-down killed, action goal scored – Dusan Matkovic sent a smart shot to the bottom left corner to put Montenegro ahead for 13-14 with 2:05 to go.

Not surprisingly, another six-on-five came in front of their goal, but they managed to deny it, the sixth in a row.

And despite missing their own chance, after another great steal, Vuckovic swam away and finished off the one-on-one 19 seconds from time to seal a huge win and end Serbia’s 19-game winning streak at the home Europeans.

Ironically, it came against a team led by former Serbian great Dejan Savic, who was instrumental in building that streak as a player in 2006 and as head coach in 2016.

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Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics

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