Round 5 of the European preliminaries featured close match- ups with the teams of Serbia, Greece, Italy and Slovakia each claiming a win in the FINA Men’s Water Polo World League 2014, held on March 11.
Extending their unbeaten streak with a third win, Serbia and Hungary easily secured a berth for the Men’s Super Final with the last European qualifier from Group C, Italy or Montenegro, to be decided in the sixth and last round in April. The ultimate showdown takes place in Dubai (UAE) from June 16-21, 2014.
In the evening’s closest encounter, 2013 World silver medallist Montenegro (Group C) suffered their first loss in this year’s tournament, losing just by one goal to 2012 Olympic runner-up Italy (9- 10) in Bari. Meanwhile in Bratislava, Slovakia won its return match against Germany 12-9.
In Group A, defending World League champion Serbia crushed Romania 7-4 in Bucharest. In Group B, visiting Croatia was defeated by Greece in Patras 7-8. The 2012 Olympic champions bring up the rear in Group B, with three losses.
The composition of the European Groups of the 2014 Men’s World League is as follows: GROUP A – Romania, Russia, Serbia
GROUP B – Croatia, Greece, Hungary
GROUP C – Germany, Italy, Montenegro, Slovakia
The World League’s Intercontinental Tournament for America, Asia, Africa and Oceania is scheduled in Shanghai (CHN) from May 26-June 1, 2014 with the following teams:
Group A – Canada, Kazakhstan, Japan, Australia
Group B – China, South Africa, Brazil, USA
Provisional rankings:
GROUP A: SRB, 9 pts (3 wins); RUS, 3 (1W, 2 losses); ROU, 4 (1W, 3L)
GROUP B: HUN, 8 pts (3W); GRE, 5 (2W, 2L); CRO, 2 (3L)
GROUP C: MNE 12 pts (4W, 1L), ITA, 12 (4W, 1L); GER, 3 (1W, 4L); SVK, 3 (1W, 4L)
6th round (April 15, 2014):
Group A: SRB vs RUS, Kragujevac (SRB) Group B: HUN vs CRO, Pecs (HUN)
Group C (April 1): SVK vs ITA, Kosice (SVK) Group C: GER vs MNE, city tbc
This release was provided to SwimSwam courtesy of FINA.
