World Championships: Hungary Wins Semis Thriller over Serbia; Spain Takes Shootout
The semifinals of the 2025 World Aquatics Championships men’s water polo tournament didn’t disappoint, with Spain surviving a shootout to beat Greece, 11-9 and Hungary outlasting Serbia, 19-18, in regulation.
Hungary and Serbia was just a slugfest. The game was tied at 8 at half. Hungary scored eight times in the third quarter and led 17-12 early in the fourth on a Daniel Angyal direct foul goal. But Dusan Mandic set off a set of four straight goals by Serbia to get within 18-17 with 1:50 left.
Vince Vigvari scored on the power play to make it 19-17 with 1:18 left, and Mandic missed a direct foul shot with 58 seconds left. Milos Cuk got the Serbians within 19-18 with 25 seconds left, but they didn’t get another look at goal.
Krisztian Manhercz powered Hungary with four goals and four assists. Gergo Fekete stepped up with four markers. Akos Nagy added three goals and four assists.
“It was a really big battle, if I can say that,” Manhercz said. “I just need to search for the words because I’m really exhausted. I’m sure you might think that the supporters on both sides enjoyed the game – that was 37 goals. Obviously, we need to improve for the next game, but I’m really proud because we needed a lot of energy and we proved that we are a new team, younger team with less experience, and we proved that we are now one of the best teams in the world and we are in the final.”
Mandic led Serbia with five goals and two assists. Cuk scored twice with five assists. Nikola Jaksic was 3-for-3 shooting and four assists.
“We’re very disappointed,” Mandic said. “We didn’t play like we wanted to play. They were more concentrated. We simply couldn’t defend. Every defense was all man down, or goals, we (conceded) 19 goals. This is much higher than our (usual) style, our reputation, and how we play.”
Spain led 6-3 at halftime, but the game changed when Alvaro Granados was shown a red card with 64 seconds left in the third quarter. Greece scored the first three goals of the fourth quarter, part of a four-goal run. Two came from Nikolaos Gkillas, who put the Greeks up 7-6 with 1:49 left.
Spain had two shots saved by Panagiotis Tzortzatos before Alberto Munarriz scored a direct foul goal with two seconds left to tie the game.
“We played a lot of defense,” Spain’s Bernat Sanahuja said. “The last two quarters, we were a little down in attack. but we kept defending and that’s the key of the match. “It was great with a really good start. But in the last two quarters, we were a little bit down, but we kept pushing. I’m really happy for what the team did and we have to keep it like this for the final.”
The first five shooters converted in the shootout until Unai Aguirre stopped Dimitrios Skoumpakis in the third round. Marc Larumbe consolidated Spain’s lead by converting his goal, then Aguirre came up with another stave against Konstantinos Kakaris to send Spain through.
Sanahuja led Spain with four goals. Munarriz had two goals and two assists. Granados scored twice. Aguirre had 12 saves.
Konstantinos Genidounias scored three goals and two assists for Greece. Gkillas had two goals. Tzortzatos stopped 12 shots.
“I’m feeling empty, really,” Genidounias said. “For one second, it was our game. One second to go, it was our game. That’s water polo, that’s sports, that’s life. One second you have something, the other second you don’t. We still had the chance to win in the penalty shootout, but we didn’t.”
Spain has won three world championships on the men’s side, last in 2022. Tuesday’s win assures the fifth straight edition of the championships in which it has secured a medal.
Hungary is looking for its fifth title, which would break a tie with Italy for the most ever on the men’s side. The Hungarians won the title in 2023 in Fukuoka, in penalties over Greece. (The last three finals have all gone to the shootout.)
Elsewhere Tuesday, Montenegro will play Croatia for fifth. Montenegro beat Italy, 12-8, thanks to four goals and two assists from Balsa Vuckovic and 11 saves from Petar Tesanovic. Croatia topped the U.S., 14-9. Rino Buric (three goals, two assists) and Loren Fatovic (two goals, three assists) had five points each.
The U.S. will play Italy for seventh. Adrian Weinberg had eight saves Tuesday. Marko Vavic and Chase Dodd scored twice apiece.
