The Croatia water polo team secured a win in the final round of the Europa Cup Group D. Coach Ivica Tucak's side defeated and dominated their eternal rival, Serbia, with a result of 12:9 (1-0, 4-4, 5-2, 2-3). Croatia has thus won first place in its group in front of Serbia and Romania, and advances to the final tournament of Europa Cua, which will be played in Zagreb in April, reports Dnevno.hr on March 12, 2019. 

If the Croatian “Barracudas” are among the top four teams in the tournament, they will place in the finals of the World League in Belgrade this June. The World League winner will secure placement in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, while other routes to the Olympics will be available through the Water Polo World Championships in Guangzhou in July.

Otherwise, Croatia played a great match and held the lead from the very beginning, while their breakthrough of the game was the third quarter when they led 5:2.

The most effective player of the Croatian national team was Maro Joković, who scored four goals, while Marko Macan and Ante Vukičević added two, and Andro Bušlje, Lovre Miloš, Josip Vrlić, and Xavi Garcia each scored one. Dušan Mandić, Andrija Prlainović, Stefan Mitrović, and Filip Filipović each scored one goal for Serbia. 

Although the result of this game had almost no significance, considering both teams had already advanced to the finals of the tournament, it was imperative to see that Croatia is stable and in good form before the finals in Zagreb from April 5 to 7, 2019. 

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

Croatia will face Spain in the final tonight in Rijeka. 

An analysis of the greatest sporting clashes between Croatia and Serbia ahead of the 'match of the year' between the two nations at the European Handball Championship tonight.

The European Handball Championships will be held in Croatia from January 12 to 28, 2018.