Greece crush Croatia to make final

FINA JUNIOR WATER POLO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - SEMIFINALS

Defending champions Greece demolish Croatia 15-6 to reach the final of the 2019 Men’s Junior (U20) Water Polo World Championships.

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After a dramatic quarterfinal victory over the Americans on penalties, Greece had to play the remainder of the tournament without head coach Theodoros Lorantos, who received a red card and was suspended for the next two matches. Despite that, the Greeks came out strong in the first period in a rematch of the 2017 final, finding themselves 4-2 up against the Croatians. The Greeks then extended this lead, as they went into halftime 8-5 up.

A dominant third period saw the Greeks take a commanding 13-5 lead, and by then the match was practically over. A solid fourth period performance gave Greece a 15-6 win in the end. Greece will now face Serbia in Friday’s final, with the Serbians beating Italy 9-7 in the other semifinal.

Konstantinos Gkiouvetsis led Greece offensively with five goals, while Alexandros Papanastasiou found the back of the net four times himself. Efstathios Kalogeropoulos and Dimitrios Nikolaidis each scored two goals as well. Goalkeeper Nikolaos Mitrakis was arguably the man of the match, coming up with impressive saves throughout the match. Mitrakis only let six goals in, with four of them being penalty shots. On the other hand, only one of Greece’s 15 goals was from a penalty shot. Lastly, praise must also be given to assistant coach Nikolaos Karamanis, who has stepped up to lead this team in the absence of Lorantos.

Greece will now not only be looking for their second consecutive title, but their third overall, after also winning this event back in 2001. Greece also finished second on two occasions (1995 and 2009), and overall this will be Greece’s seventh medal at the event, having won bronze twice (1997 and 2011). The match against Serbia will be a rematch of the 2017 semifinals, where Greece beat Serbia in Belgrade. It should be noted that the Greeks from this generation are also the reigning champions of both the European U19 Championships and the World U18 Championships.

by Andrew Stamas

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