Romania outshines Croatia in semi-final: Day twelve – European Water Polo Championships
Romanian team outshined Croatia in the Men’s semi-final round for seventh- tenth position on twelfth day of the ongoing 2012 European Water Polo Championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands on Friday, January 27 at the Pieter van den Hoogenband Swim Stadium.
The Romanian squad, which ranked sixth in the preliminary round of Group ‘B’, overwhelmed fourth best team of their group with a difference of just one goal. The audience went wild with the furious efforts of both teams as Romania took a 16-15 victory over Croatia in the Penalty Shoot Outs (PSO).
Romania remained dominant over their challenging team in the first three quarters, but Croatian squad elevated their efforts in the fourth quarter and succeeded in drawing the match.
The first quarter was dominated by Romanian squad, which scored four goals and outsmarted Croatia’s effort of two goals. Almost the same continued in second quarter, where Croatia once again notched up two goals, but their effort was occupied by three goals accomplishment from the Romanian team and the score remained 7-4 after the first half.
The Romanian team continued their supremacy in the third quarter and scored two more goals. On the contrary, Croatian team was able to improve their score by just one fraction and the score went up to 9-5 after the third round.
The fourth quarter saw relentless efforts of Croatian team that smothered Romanian players by stroking five goals whereas Romania managed to notch up one goal and draw the score at 10-all.
The same continued in the extra time, where Croatia scored one goal in the first half of extra time while Romania remained at nil. In the second half, Croatia added another goal to their scorecard while Romanian squad achieved two goals to tie the match at 12-12.
Nevertheless, Romania snuggled victory in the PSO, where they clinched four goals while Croatian team scored three goals and lost the match.
Cosmin Radu of Romania contributed four goals and played a crucial role in his team’s victory.
Furthermore, Romania is now scheduled to compete with Spain in the classification round for seventh position while the championship will concluded on January 29 after the completion of all matches.
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