Croatian In European Water Polo Championship Semis

A brilliant game in defence and attack led Croatia to win over Italy 8:7 in Malaga and to the European Water Polo Championship semis.

The Croatian national water polo team is getting better and better with every new match. By beating Italy last night in the quarter finals, Croatia will continue the European Championship in the semi finals. 

Ratko Rudic’s team showed to everyone that the match against Greece was just a bad day. Croatia made good use of the one man advantage they had at the beginning of the match. In the first quarter they scored the advantage over the Italians which they kept all the way to the end of the game.

When Croatia had problems in attack, the team would raise the game intensity in defence, completely stopping the Italians from getting any closer.

The Italian players struggled to detect where the danger was coming from in Croatia’s attacks, but the complexity of the Croatian game left them without an answer.

The goal difference at the end of the game should have been higher, but the Croats were not very lucky in attack. Vican was one of the best players in the whole match. With two brilliant defensive actions, in the last minutes of the game, he stopped Italy from drawing and the match from going to extra time.

Ratko Rudic can now start to prepare his team for the semi final against Montenegro, which Croatia already defeated in the first round on Friday.

The Croatia manages to get through tot eh final, this would mean a double celebration for the team, considering that the president of the Croatian Water Polo Federation (HVS), Perica Bukic, on Saturday will be received in the water polo Hall of Fame.