Friday 19 / April / 2024
Rio de Janerio: Montenegro put an early end to the medal bid of water polo powerhouse Hungary on Tuesday, clinching a spot in the semifinals in a thrilling penalty shootout.
Also advancing were world champions Serbia, who overpowered Spain 10-7.
Hungary's men's team, the most successful in the sport's 116-year Olympic history, had arrived in Rio de Janeiro seeking to put things right after failing to reach the podium at the 2012 London Games.
The Hungarians, who have won gold nine times in previous Games, managed to battle back from an 5-3 deficit at halftime, levelling the score at 9-9 late in the fourth quarter.
In the decisive penalty shootout, however, Montenegro got the upper hand. Their goalkeeper Milos Scepanovic, 33, had shown lightning-fast reflexes to make dazzling blocks throughout the game and saved two shots in the shootout, which ended 4-2 in Montenegro's favour.
Scepanovic, who logged an impressive 13 total saves, said he blamed himself for allowing Hungary to score the late equalising goal in regular time and felt under pressure to prove himself during the shootout.
"I was really upset because that last goal was my fault," he said. "I just didn't want to ruin a beautiful game. I'm so proud of the saves."
Through the group-round play, Hungary had shown they could hang with the best, drawing against Serbia in the first game.
Montenegro, in their 10-year history playing as a national team, have repeatedly demonstrated that they are not to be trifled with. They took second place to Serbia in this year's European championship, where Hungary placed third.
Montenegro - which before the 2008 Games had played as part of the Serbia-Montenegro team - is anxious for its first men's water polo Olympic medal as an independent team after narrowly missing the podium in London and Beijing, where it finished fourth each time.
In the second quarter-final match, a Serbian team that has dominated world water polo in recent years, and badly wants its first Olympic gold, scored its first convincing win of the Games, extending a 7-3 lead at halftime to finish off Spain 10-7.
Serbia's typically stalwart defence had looked distracted early in its five group phase games, forcing the team to mount late come-backs to squeeze through to the elimination round.
"I think we had concentration, especially on defence, from the very first moment until the last second," said team captain Zivko Gocic of the win against Spain. "It was the key of today's victory."
In Thursday's semifinal round, Montenegro will play the winners between Croatia and home team Brazil, who face off later Tuesday. Greece and Italy also play, with the winner moving on to face Serbia.
The gold medal match will be on Saturday.
