Dubai: Record nine-time Olympic gold medallists Hungary booked themselves into the final of the Fina Water Polo World League Super Final with a 10-8 semi-final win over Montenegro at the Hamdan Sports Complex here on Friday.
A Balasz Erdelyi hat-trick made all the difference as the Hungarians also confirmed their qualification for next year’s World Championship in Kazan, Russia, with this top-two finish.
Hungary will play Serbia in Saturday’s final (6.30pm) after the latter’s 12-5 win over Australia in last night’s second semi-final.
Two goals from Hungary’s Norbert Mandaras and a third from Marton Toth were sandwiched by efforts from Montenegro’s Uros Cuckovic and Mladjan Janovic as the first quarter ended 3-2. Darko Brguljan levelled for Montenegro, but Hungary’s Daniel Angyal and Erdelyi added two more to make it 5-3 at the interval.
Vjekoslav Paskovic and Janovic pulled Montenegro back to 5-5, only for Daniel Varga and Norbert Hosnyanszky to restore Hungary’s two-goal lead.
Hungary’s Erdelyi then scored two quick replies to Drasko Brguljan and Antonio Petrovic’s efforts to leave the score at 9-7 after the third quarter. In the final quarter, Montenegro’s Filip Klikovac cancelled out Denes Varga’s effort but they couldn’t close the gap.
Hungary coach Tibor Benedek said a win in this competition would give them confidence for next month’s European Championships at home in Budapest.
“We came here wanting to play Montenegro and Serbia — this was very important for our European Championship preparations,” he said. “One is done the other is tomorrow [Saturday], where we will play most probably Serbia in the final. They were the favourites coming into the tournament and we will try to beat them.”
Montenegro coach Ranko Perovic said that despite defeat his team would learn from the setbacks ahead of the European Championships.
“We played much better than we did in the rest of the competition, we just weren’t so good in defence,” he said. “They led by three goals and kept catching us on the counter as we tried to recover.
“There are always positives and negatives to take away and, with this experience and the addition of players returning to the squad from injury, we will be much stronger for the European Championships.”
