A big win for Croatia at the European Waterpolo Championships.
Croatian water polo team has achieved another victory at the European Championships in Serbia. With the score 22-2, Croatia easily defeated Malta. With two wins and one defeat, Croatian players have won the second place in the group. Even though the victory was impressive, Croatia did not manage to break its own 22-year-old record, when it defeated New Zealand with the score 35-1, reports Index.hr on January 14, 2016.
Croatia was lead to victory by Andro Bušlje and Sandro Sukno with four goals each, while Anđelo Šetka and Luka Bukić scored three goals each. Serbia and France will play the second match of this group later this evening. In the next round Croatia, as the runner-up in Group B, will play against the third placed team from group A. If there are no major surprises in the final round of that group, Croatian next opponent will be the Netherlands. That match will be played at 8.15 pm on Saturday, January 16.
“Malta has failed to provide resistance. We knew that from the very beginning and we have already started thinking about the next round and the match against the Netherlands. After that game, the quarterfinals and the real fight begin. I hope that we will be healthy for the next matches and that we will play our best game”, said Anđelo Šetka.
Coach Ivica Tucak was not surprised by the victory. “It was expected given the huge difference in quality between Croatia and Malta. Right now, we should forget that game and turn to what is most important in this tournament, and that is the knockout phase. On Saturday, we will play against the Netherlands, and we are the better team. They are similar to France, perhaps somewhat weaker. After that game, we will look further, at the match against Hungary or Greece. Whoever our opponent in the quarterfinals is, it will be hard for us, but we will try to go all the way”, said Tucak.
