FINA Water Polo World League, Group B Update: Serbia Beat Australia 8-6, Croatia Thrash South Africa
The last round of fixtures in Group 2 saw the two leading teams in the group, Australia and Serbia, face off against each other here in Nis, Serbia. The Serbians have been very impressive in the tournament, destroying South Africa (22-0) and getting past Croatia rather easily too (9-8) en route to the final game of the group stages. The hosts are favourites to take the FINA Water Polo World League crown, and have shown why they have been rated as such.
Australia caused a surprise in the group stage when they beat a Croatian side (10-7) which had managed to reach the final of the tournament in last year's edition, and then completed a routine (19-4) win against South Africa to set up this match, which would decide who gets first place in the group. The Australians, however, were well aware that the Serbians play at a completely different level to the other two teams and they had a tough match ahead.
The game was a very tight affair, as most people expected, but to the delight of the home fans, it was the Serbians who came out on top when the dust had settled. The score at the end of the game was 8-6 to Serbia, in one of the most closely contested games of the tournament so far.
It was the Australians who got off to the better start, putting the Serbians under the kind of pressure they are not used to. The pressure was turned into goals, as Australia breached the Serbian defence not once but twice before Serbia had a chance to respond.
If the first period belonged to Australia, the second and third belonged to Serbia. The Europeans flexed their muscles and showed their strength as they scored six goals in a row in the two periods to turn the match on its head completely.
Although in the last period, the Australians came a little close to a comeback, but it was not to be, as Serbia deservedly won the match and took the first place in the group stage to set up an easy quarterfinal against China in the next round.
In the other game of the group, South Africa played against last year's finalists, Croatia. The match was almost identical to South Africa's first game against the hosts Serbia, where they conceded an unbelievable 22 goals without managing to score once themselves.
This game would prove to be yet another thrashing for the South Africans, who yet again conceded 22 goals in the allotted time. However, they managed to get some consolation as they scored a goal in the 28th minute to make it 22-1.
As is clear by the score-line, Croatia had a number of players who were very impressive in the game, but none more so than Paulo Obradovic. The Croatian was unstoppable in the game, scoring 4 times, which is the highest of any player in the last round of fixtures.
Croatia's third place finish in the group means that they set up a quarterfinal encounter against the United States, whereas South Africa will have to play the defending champions Montenegro.
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