Croatia overwhelm Spain in preliminary round, Group B: Day eight – European Water Polo Championships
Croatian senior national team impressed the aquatic crowd by overwhelming Spain in their fifth Men’s water polo qualifying match of Group ‘B’ on eighth day of the 2012 European Water Polo Championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands on Monday, January 23 at the
Pieter van den Hoogenband Swim Stadium.
The match was pretty tough from the beginning as both teams demonstrated their gruelling techniques to occupy the victory, but the Croatian squad managed to outperform Spain on the scorecard by a margin of just one goal. The Croatian team enjoyed a magnificent
11-10 victory over Spain in the four-quarter game.
These European Championships are of noteworthy importance for all international teams as they precede the 2012 London Olympic Games. These championships provide an opportunity to world-class players to overcome their shortcomings before the London Olympics.
The Croatian squad suffered ruthless aggression of Spanish players in the first quarter, where they notched up just one goal while their opponent stroke three goals to make the score 1-3 after the first round.
The tables turned in the second quarter where the Croatian team made a significant improvement in their strategy and smothered their opponent by accomplishing five goals. On the contrary, Spain managed to improve their score by just one goal and the score
went up to 6-4 after the first half.
The same continued in third quarter, where the Croatian players continued their dominance and successfully blocked almost all efforts of their challenging team. Spain was able to score just one goal while Croatian player’s stroke three goals to supplement
their lead to four goals as the score remained 9-5 after the third round.
The fourth quarter saw implacable performance of Spanish players, who scored five goals but it was too late to grab the victory as the Croatians ensured their win by accomplishing just two goals.
The arena went wild with the remarkable efforts of both teams while the Croatian squad commemorated their victory after the match. In addition, the Croatian team has qualified for the semi-final while Spain will have to compete with Turkey in the quarterfinal
on Wednesday, January 25.
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