Russia beat Netherlands in preliminary round, Group A: Day three – European Water Polo Championships
Russia’s national team beat Netherlands in their first Women’s water polo qualifying match of Group ‘A’ on third day of the 2012 European Water Polo Championships in Eindhoven on Wednesday, January 18 at the Pieter van den Hoogenband Swim Stadium.
The Russian squad faced strong competition from Netherlands’s team throughout the four quarter game. Their effort were constantly overwhelmed by Netherlanders in the first three rounds, but they managed to ascend on the scorecard by a margin of just one goal in the final round, pocketing victory with a 10-11 lead in the game.
The first round started with the dominance of Russian players, who scored two consecutive goals in initial three minutes of the game. Their effort was followed by two goals from Netherlands’ side but Russians managed to advance on the scorecard by achieving third goal in the last two minutes of the round, making the score 2-3.
In the meantime, the arena experienced furious efforts of Netherlanders, who raked five goals in the second round. On the contrary, Russians were able to add three more goals to their points table and the score went up to 7-6 after the halftime.
The third round was the toughest of all, where both teams elevated their efforts and scored two goals against each other. Russia tried very hard to score one more goal, so they could level the score but the Netherlanders managed to sustain their lead of one score and the round ended with a score of 9-8.
Subsequently, Russia notched up a goal in the start of fourth quarter and was able to level the score, but their effort was shortly tampered by the Netherlanders, who scored another goal and once again advanced on the scorecard. After that, the Russians found the cage twice while their opponents failed to sustain their position and lost the match by just one goal.
Ekaterina Lisunova of Russia chipped in four goals for her team and emerged as the player of the match. In addition, Russia will now play against Great Britain in its second bout of the tournament on Friday, January 20.
Tags: