Editorial Coverage Sponsored By FINIS
By Dan D’Addona
The Australian men’s water polo team needed a win and needed some help to reach the quarterfinals at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
The Aussies got the first in the final round of group play and are moving on. Australia defeated Greece 12-7 to reach the first part of the equation. The next part was out of their hands.
If Japan defeated Serbia, that would clinch the second part, but Serbia rallied to beat Japan 12-8 and earn a spot in the quarterfinals.
That left it to the Brazil-Hungary match. Brazil needed to win by two goals to eliminate Hungary and put the Aussies in the quarters, but Hungary surged to a 10-6 win over Brazil to eliminate Austrailia.
Hungary led 5-1 and cruised past the host Brazilians.
Hungary’s win clinched a spot in the quarterfinals with Brazil, Greece and Serbia from Group A.
Meanwhile in Group B, Spain, Croatia and Montenegro advanced to the quarterfinals along with Italy despite a 10-7 loss to the United States.
The U.S. was already eliminated coming into play Sunday.
Hungary and Montenegro will face off in Tuesday’s quarterfinals, while Spain will face Serbia, Greece faces Italy, and Brazil will face Croatia.
Hungary 10, Brazil 6
Needing a win to advance, Hungary jumped out to a 5-0 lead after the first quarter and never looked back, defeating Brazil 10-6 on Sunday to qualify for the Olympic quarterfinals., winning Group A at 2-0-3.
Daniel Varga, Norbert Hosnyansky and Marton Vamos got the Hungarians off to the quick start with first-quarter goals.
Balazs Harai, Hosnyansky and Vamos each scored twice for Hungary. Viktor Nagy made 12 saves in goal.
Bernardo Oneto Gomes scored twice for Brazil, which had already qualified for the quarterfinals.
Australia 12, Greece 7
Rhys Howden and John Cotterill each scored three goals to help Australia have a chance at qualifying, but the Aussies were eliminated with Hungary’s victory.
United States 10, Italy 7
Playing its last match in Rio, the U.S. came back from an early deficit to win its first match of the games.
Bret Bonanni and Tony Azevedo each scored twice for the Americans. It was the final game for U.S. goalie Merrill Moses.
Serbia 12, Japan 8
Serbia bounced back from a three-goal deficit with a 3-0 performance in the second quarter to rally for a 12-8 win over Japan and reach the quarterfinals.
Filip Filipovic scored six goals to lead Serbia who had star battle with Japan’s Koji Takei, who scored five goals of his own.
Montenegro 9, Spain 9
Montenegro’s Aleksandar Radovic scored with 1:30 to go in the fourth quarter to preserve a 9-9 tie with Spain.
Both teams will move on to the quarterfinals. Spain won Group B.
France 9, Croatia 8
France took an early lead in the first quarter and hung on to defeat Croatia 9-8 on Sunday. Croatia still qualified for the quarterfinals, while France was already eliminated.
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