The Croatian water polo team lost 13:10 to Italy in the third round of the second stage and missed the semifinals of the European Championship.
The chosen ones Ivice Tuck will play for fifth place against Spain, while Italy in the semi-finals to play against the hosts of Serbia.
The Barracudas were thus left without a medal for the second major tournament in a row. We remind you, at last year’s World Championship they took fifth place after they convincingly lost to Hungary 18:12 in the quarter-finals.
The first quarter ended in a goal for goal game with a score of 3:3. Even then, the goalkeepers, Marko Bijač from Croatia and Marco Del Lungo from the Italian side, showed how they would have a phenomenal evening. After Marko Žuvela equalized at 3:3 with 1:10 left in the first period, Croatia was without a hit for even more than 10 minutes, reports Index.hr.
Italy took advantage of that with three consecutive goals went to 6:3, but Croatia woke up and also tied the game with three goals in a row, in a span of only 90 seconds at 6:6. In the final eight minutes entered with a tie of 7:7.
By the end of the third period, Croatia missed two attacks to take the lead, while already in the first attack of the fourth quarter, they shot three times, twice had one player more, but did not score. Italy is on the other side led 8:7 with Tommaso Gianazza’s goal after Francesco Condemi hit the post.
Luka Bukić is equalized at 8:8, but Filippo Ferrero put Italy back in front with a goal from the box. After that, Croatia equalized once more, but that goal was disallowed because in the action that preceded the goal, Josip Vrlić hid the box, which the referees saw only after checking. Ferrero was again accurate and thus broke the game. Italy kept the lead until the end, and Ferrero scored the final goal with an empty net 13:10.
Del Lungo was the first name of the match with 15 saves (60%), while Bijač was also excellent with 12 (50%). Ferrero was the top scorer with four goals for Italy, while Rino Burić and Loren Fatović scored three each for Croatia. The game was marked by suspensions. Croatia used 9 out of 21 situations with more players, and Italy 5 out of 13.
(www.jabuka.tv | Photo: Dusan Milenkovic/Pixsell)
