Serbia, Hungary continue march

Action from the match between Hungary and USA during the Water Polo World League Super Final. — KT photo by Mukesh Kamal

Favourites Serbia, the defending champions and Hungary, the previous edition silver medallists, registered comfortable victories in their final group (A & B) outings on Day three of the Fina Men’s Water Polo World League Super Final at the Hamdan Sports Complex off the Emirates Highway, on Wednesday.

Serbia kept their record intact with a comfortable 14-9 victory over Montenegro, the bronze medallists in the last chapter, on Tuesday.

Unbeaten Serbia and Hunagary thus finished on top of their groups to head towards a Gr. A winners v Gr. B 4^th placed side and Gr. B winners v Gr A 4^th placed side quarter-finals lineup for Thursday.

The other last eight encounters on Thursday will see the Gr. A runners-up meeting the Gr B 3^rd placed squad and the Gr B runners-up running into Gr B’s third placed finishers.

Hungary’s Varga with 4 and Madaras with 3 guided the mainly Budapest-based side past the US for whom Samuels contributed 4. The final scoreboard standing was 16-9 in favour of the Hungarians.

The runners-up of the previous edition had the upper hand in all the quarters though they were held by a determined US outfit to 4-4 in the final visit.

The Serbs downed the experimental ‘future’Brazil team 12-4 with 3-1, 5-1, 3-1, 1-1 quarter report cards and in the final session Brazil mustered some courage in their attacks against practically the bench strength 6 presented by the Serb coach.

Canada did well to shrug off some of their early sluggishness to edge the promising young Australians 10-8 (3-2, 2-2, 3-3, 2-1) in group action.

The final Wednesday game between the Montenegro team and winless China should as the form book goes, be a cruise for the Balkan nation.

The third match on Tuesday night surprisingly did not see Serbia being pushed hard by arch rival Montenegro. Serbia ran out 14-9 winners in the ‘group of death clash’ in Pool A.

The top sides saw Montenegro go into a slide in their scoring abilities. It took them a full clocking of 21 minutes (third period) before they found the Serbian net.

Serbia’s Dusan Mandic, the youngest water polo player at the 2012 London Olympic Games was once again the star here with an impressive 5 goal catch.

He told the media: “I really don’t care about the goals. Almost three quarters we did not concede any goals. It’s a great victory. I hope we get to the final. Before I cared about beating our neighbours. Now I don’t care. I’m not surprised by the ease of the victory. If we do what the coach tells us I think there are no big opponents who will match us.”