Defeat for Croatia in their opening match in Serbia.
Croatia has suffered a defeat against Serbia at the opening of the European Water Polo Championships in Belgrade. Serbia won 13-6 and this was the worst defeat for Croatia in the history of major competitions. At the previous European Championships, the worst result for Croatia was a defeat against Hungary (5-11) in 1995, reports Index.hr on January 11, 2016.
The opening of the European Championships brought us the match between Serbia, the current world and European champions, and Croatia, the current Olympic champions. Unfortunately, it was a repeat of the World Championships final in Kazan last year when Serbia defeated Croatia 11-4. This time, Croatia again lost by seven goals, although at the beginning of the last quarter Serbia even had a nine point advantage (13-4).
Serbia was led to victory by Dušan Mandić and Andrija Prlainović with three goals, while Stefan Mitrović scored two goals. In the Croatian team, the best scorer was Anđelko Šetka with two goals. Croatia last beat Serbia more than five years ago, in the semi-finals of the European Championships in Zagreb in September 2010.
Before the match, the Croatian flag and the national anthem were booed by the audience. Serbian media reacted with indignation and wrote about the shame which the audience brought to Serbia. During the parade of the participating countries, flags of Germany, Hungary, Turkey and Montenegro were also booed.
After the game, Croatian team manager Ivica Tucak said to reporters that Croatia will rise again. “This was a well-deserved victory by Serbia, they were definitely better in all parts of the game. The result is ugly for us, but the tournament has just begun. We have to defeat France, which is the most important game. I hope we will correct our errors and play better”, said Tucak and complained about the referees’ decisions. “I hope we will see each other in the finals.”
Croatian national team member Marko Macan congratulated Serbia on a good game: “Serbia has played very well; they are a great team and favourites for the first place.”
“It is obvious that we have been preparing too much for this match, since we did not know that the Croats would be so unprepared”, said the best water polo player in the world Duško Pijetlović. “In any case, I am glad that the audience enjoyed the match. We are not used to playing in front of such a large number of people.”
Serbian coach Dejan Savić gave his comments. “It would be presumptuous to say that I am not satisfied. We entered the game very seriously. Josip Pavić played well at the Croatian goal, but he nonetheless allowed a lot of goals during the match.”
