Croatia has become the first champion of the new water polo competition!
The Croatia men’s water polo team is the champion of the first ever LEN Europa Cup, after overcoming Spain 12-9 (2-1, 4-4, 3-1, 3-3) in the finals of the tournament in Rijeka, reports Gol.hr on April 8, 2018.
The brilliant final match saw six goals by Loren Fatović, two by Ante Vukičević, and one for Maro Joković, Andro Bušlje, Josip Vrlić and Javier Garcia, while Marko Bijač had 12 saves. Alberto Munarriz was the best on Spain with three goals, followed by Blai Mallarach who scored two goals.
Croatia was in the lead throughout the first quarter, with goals from Bušlje and Fatovic to put them on top with 2-0. Bušlje had a chance to increase the lead to 3-0 but missed taking advantage of having an extra player in the pool.
In the second eight minutes, Spain managed to keep the result equal with an effective attacking game. The guests leveled at 3-3, 4-4 and 5-5, but they were unable to overtake Croatia’s lead a single time.
Fatović scored at the end of the second and the beginning of the third quarter to give Croatia an advantage of 7-5. Joković then scored for 9-6 at the end of the third quarter which brought Croatia a gain of three goals for the first time in the game. In the final quarter, Croatia took advantage of three goals.
Third place was won by Italy, who was better than Serbia with a score of 10-9, while the Montenegrin side finished 15-7 against the Hungarians for fifth place. Finishing in seventh was Greece who was better than France with 12-4.
