Serbia and Croatia have battled their way through the best water polo teams in the world to square off in the Olympic final match in Paris 2024, where only one will win and take home the gold.
It’s expected to be a rematch of the Rio 2016 gold medal match. While Croatia hopes to add an Olympic medal to the global title they won earlier this year after eliminating Serbia in the quarterfinals on their route to gold, the Serbians are aiming to defend their title for a third consecutive Olympic Games.
Before this final, it appeared as though both teams may lose out on medal chances because Croatia was supposed to meet gold-medal favorites, Spain, in the quarterfinals. Spain had never lost before. In water polo play, Croatia, on the other hand, had a mixed 3-2 record.
However, Croatia grabbed charge right on, fending off Spain 6-3 at the half and winning 10-8 while not giving up a goal for the whole first quarter.
Conversely, Serbia preserved their hopes of winning a gold medal by scoring the game-winning goal in the last two seconds of their quarterfinal matchup with Greece.On Sunday, August 11, the neighbors of the Balkans will compete for the gold medal as Croatia looks to reclaim the crown from Serbia for the first time since 2012.
On Friday, August 9, the United States and Hungary were defeated by Serbia and Croatia, respectively. On Sunday, August 11, they will compete for the bronze medal.
Serbia wins against the USA to move on to the third consecutive gold medal match
The Americans were determined to halt Serbia’s dominance going into the semi-final, but the Serbians had other ideas.
Trailing 1-0 early in the first period, they regained the upper hand in the second and eventually outscored the Americans 10–6 in the final frame.
.The success was mainly due to the four goals scored by Serbian veteran Nikola Dedovic and the three markers from Nikola Jaksic. To complete the scoring, three more players each scored one goal.
“From the beginning to the end, every single one of [my teammates] was incredible, and we deservedly won this game,” Jaksic remarked following the match.
“We came here to win it, not to finish second… We will undoubtedly give it our all in this game, perhaps even more than in any other during the tournament.
Player of the day: Loren Fatovic’s flawless five-point play
Despite Hungary’s early 30-second advantage against Croatia in their semi-final, Loren Fatovic proved too strong for Hungary.
Throughout the match, he took five shots and made every single one of them to help the Croatians win 9–8 and advance to the gold-medal final.
Given that he has led the Croatians in scoring or finished tied for first place in five of their seven games, Fatovic will be a serious threat to the Serbians if they hope to retain their Olympic championship.After the semifinal, Fatovic declared, “This year is ideal for us.”
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“But we want to win this one last game and make it amazing; we don’t want to stop here.” Marko Bijac, the Croatian goalkeeper who stopped ten of Hungary’s eighteen shots throughout the match, continued, “We are the best when it’s most essential. We always battle to the very end, as we demonstrated here.”
Results for Men’s Water Polo on August 9th:
Men’s Classification: 5th–8th
Italy lost to Spain 11–9.
Men’s semifinal Serbia defeated the USA 10–6 in the men’s fifth–eighth class.
Greece won the men’s semifinal 15–9 against Australia.
Croatia triumphed 9–8 over Hungary.
