Waterpolo: European Championships in Split, a super Setterosa stretches Spain

A domain or almost: this is the real surprise. In Split, on the second day of the European Championships, the Setterosa stretches the reigning champions and Olympic vice-champions: 12-9 over Spain with a hat-trick from Tabani and braces from Marletta and Giustini, among the best in the field. A result that should give us an easy fourth with Romania, Croatia or Germany. «We have applied to perfection what we had prepared. I especially liked the defensive zone and the brilliance in numerical superiority. But now we will have to reset everything and look ahead », recommends the coach Carlo Silipo, rewarded by the choice to deploy all three available centroboa (Palmieri, Galardi, Cocchiere).

WHAT A BREAK

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Both veterans of goleade (26-1 over Slovakia and 32-3 over Serbia: one wonders if it makes sense to have increased the number of participants in recent years), Italy and Spain give life to a lively match. Oca’s team, losing in the quarterfinals of the Budapest World Cup, for the first time since 2016 had not entered the top four of the most important events: this is enough to understand its value. In a match refereed very badly, after an uncertain start with an infinite number of wrong passes, the blues shake up: at 4-2 for the rivals, at the beginning of the second half, a 5-0 break is worth overtaking, especially made up of deadly counter-escapes. The maximum advantage at the last interval, on 11-6. The performance of Banchelli between the posts was splendid. In the last few minutes, with some unsanctioned rudeness, the Spaniards only managed to limit the damage. Then they present an appeal: a goal from Forca would not have been validated by the Var. Azzurre happy to the microphones of RaiSport: “We can see the fruits of four hard months of work” comments Giuditta Galardi. “Our concreteness has made the difference”, analyzes Giulia Viacava. The figure of the extra man remarked by Silipo is excellent, 6 goals out of 10 occasions. The next engagements against Israel, Serbia and France will be a pure formality, the primacy is in the safe. Unlikely that Hungary, in the other group, can expose itself to bad figures preferring to close in fourth place to avoid Spain.

ITALY: Banchelli, C. Tabani 3, Galardi 1, Avegno 1, Giustini 2, Bettini, Picozzi 1, Bianconi, Palmieri 1, Marletta 2, A.Cocchiere 1, Viacava, Condorelli. Herds Silipo. SPAIN: Terrè, Nogue 1, A.Espar 1, B.Ortiz 4, Perez, Gonzalez, E.Ruiz 1, Prats 1, Forca 1, Camus, M.Garcia, Leiton, Ester. Herds Goose. REFEREES: Debreceni (Ung) and Daskalopoulou (Gre). NOTE: sup. num. Italy 10 (6 goals), Spain 11 (5). Exit 3 f. E.Ruiz 3rd t., Nogue 4th t.

THE FORMULA: Twelve teams divided into two groups, the first four classified of each group access the quarterfinals (first against fourth and second against third).

THE GROUP: Germany, Croatia, Hungary, Greece, Holland, Romania (A); Serbia, France, Slovakia, Italy, Israel, Spain (B).

Saturday 27 – Group A: Germany-Romania 15-10, Netherlands-Croatia 22-6, Greece-Hungary 9-8. Group B: Spain-Serbia 32-3, Italy-Slovakia 26-1, Israel-France 8-7.

Sunday 28 – Group A: Greece-Romania 24-3, Croatia-Germany 15-8, Netherlands-Hungary 13-4. Standings: Netherlands, Greece 6; Croatia, Germany 3; Hungary, Romania 0. Group B: France-Serbia 15-14, Israel-Slovakia 18-7, Italy-Spain 12-9. Standings: Italy, Israel 3; Spain, France 3; Slovakia, Serbia 0.

Tuesday 30 – Group A: Hungary-Germany (11.30), Croatia-Romania (16), Greece-Netherlands (20.30). Group B: Slovakia-Serbia (10), France-Spain (13), Italy-Israel (19).

Thursday 1st September – Group A: Germany-Greece (10), Romania-Holland (13), Croatia-Hungary (17.30). Group B: Serbia-Italy (11.30), Spain-Israel (19), France-Slovakia (20.30).

Saturday 3 – Group A: Hungary-Romania (10), Greece-Croatia (17.30), Germany-Netherlands (20.30). Group B: Slovakia-Spain (11.30), Serbia-Israel (13), Italy-France (19).

Monday 5th quarter, Wednesday 7th semifinals, Friday 9th finals.