January 26, 2020 – The Croatia water polo team met Montenegro in the game for third place and the bronze medal at the European Championship in Budapest.
After falling to Spain on Friday in the semifinal, Croatia met Montenegro in the bronze medal game on Sunday. Croatia and Montenegro had already met in the group stage of the tournament when Croatia won 11:10.
Croatia won the sprint and, thus, the first attack of the game, which resulted in no goal.
Jokovic scored the first goal of the game from a penalty with 6:25 to go in the first quarter and 0:1 Croatia.
Jokovic scored Croatia’s second goal from another penalty for 0:2. It was 1:2 with just over a minute to go. Vukicevic scored for 1:3, which is how the first quarter ended.
Montenegro opened the second quarter with a goal for 2:3 with 7:25 to go.
Vrlic scored for 2:4 with six minutes to go and Bukic scored for 2:5 with 4:38 to go.
The game was 3:6 for Croatia with two minutes to go in the second quarter.
Loren Fatovic scored for 3:7 with 1:41 to go.
Josip Vrlic scored for 4:8 with five minutes to go in the third quarter. With 2:22 left, Montenegro decreased Croatia’s lead to 6:8 – and to 7:8 with 47 seconds to go.
Montenegro won the sprint in the final quarter though neither team was able to score until there were just over five minutes left. Fatovic increased Croatia’s lead to 7:9. Montenegro came back to -1 for 8:9 with 4:52 to go.
With 1:36 left, Montenegro equalized at 9:9 – and with 1:00 left, they took the lead for 10:9.
Croatia was unlucky in their final attack, and Montenegro took the win and the bronze medal.
To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page.
