Greek teams drawn for European Championships
The draw for the 2020 Men’s and Women’s European Water Polo Championships was held in Budapest, with the Greek men’s and women’s national teams learning their group stage opponents.
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The European Championships will be held from January 12-26 in Budapest, Hungary. The Greek men were drawn into Group D with France, Georgia, and Italy. Greece and Italy are the two teams expected to contend for the top spot in that group, which would give the winner a quarterfinal berth. The teams that finish second and third will advance to the playoff round. It should be noted that Greece finished fifth at the last edition of this event in 2018, and Greece’s best result was finishing in fourth place on two occasions (1999 and 2016). France’s best result was a silver medal back in 1927, but they have failed to place in the top 8 since 1958. Georgia will be making their European Championships debut, while Italy were crowned European champions on three occasions, with the most recent one being in 1995, and finished fourth at the 2018 event.
On the other hand, Greece’s women’s team were drawn into Group A with Croatia, Hungary, Russia, Serbia, and Slovakia. It will likely be a battle between Greece, Hungary, and Russia for the top spot in the group. The format for the women’s tournament is different from the men’s event, as the top four teams in the group will advance to the quarterfinals. The Greek women’s team have never won the event, but have been runners-up on three occasions (2010, 2012, and 2018). Hosts Hungary have won three times (1991, 2001, and 2016), but finished fourth in 2018. The Russians have also won three times (2006, 2008, and 2010), and were fifth in 2018. The other three teams in Group A have never come close to winning. Croatia’s best result was finishing in eighth (out of eight teams) in 2010 as hosts, and they finished 11th at the last European Championships in 2018. Serbia’s best finish was also eighth (out of eight teams) as hosts in 2006, and they were ninth in 2018. Lastly, Slovakia will be making their second appearance at the European Championships, having finished in 12th place back in 1993.
These European Championships have extra importance for the Greek national teams, as they could book their tickets to the Olympics with strong showings. In each event, the top team not already qualified for Tokyo 2020 will qualify. On the men’s side, Italy, Serbia, and Spain have already qualified, while Spain are the only European team already qualified for next year’s Olympics on the women’s side. Both Greek national teams will also have a chance to qualify for the Olympics in March via the World Qualification Tournaments, should they not earn Olympic qualification in Budapest.
MEN’S DRAW:
Group A: Croatia, Germany, Montenegro, Slovakia
Group B: Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Serbia
Group C: Hungary, Malta, Spain, Turkey
Group D: France, Georgia, GREECE, Italy
WOMEN’S DRAW:
Group A: Croatia, GREECE, Hungary, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia
Group B: France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Spain
