Women’s U19 European WP semi-final line-up confirmed
Netanya 2022: Spain, Greece, Hungary and the Netherlands reach semi-finals
Spain maintained their 100% winning run and remain on course to defend their LEN Women’s U19 European Water Polo title after a 18-6 quarter-final defeat of Croatia.
Captain Maria Palacio Linde top scored for the defending champions with five goals.
“We’ve worked and so hard and we fought for the game and for the goals,” she told LEN TV.
The Netherlands, bronze medallists at the last edition in 2018, defeated the hosts Israel 8-5.
Although there was nothing to separate the two sides after the first quarter the Dutch found another gear in the second and raced to a 6-1.
A second-half hattrick from Alma Yaacobi kept Israel in contention, but the Netherlands ultimately had control and progressed to the semi-finals.
“It was a hard start with Israel playing a hard press (game) and the crowd was very loud, but we kept going kept the belief,” said Feline Isolda Voordouw, who scored four times for the Dutch.
France pulled off a shock defeat of Italy during the group phase, but were no match for their quarter-final opponents Greece who achieved a 20-5 win, the biggest victory of the day.
“We came in very focused for this game wanting to show good character and what we could really do,” said Greek captain Siouti Christina.
“We didn’t start the tournament as we really wanted to and didn’t show good appearances but now we did a good game, showed what we could do and we’re ready for (anyone in) the semi-finals.”
They will face defending champion Spain on Sunday while the other final four clash will be contested between the Netherlands and Hungary after the Hungarians overcame Italy 9-7.
This looked like it would be a clear victory for Hungary who led 7-2 at the halfway stage, but the Italians fought back and drew level at 7-7 in the final quarter.
Two goals inside the final four minutes from Dalma Domsodi saw her side edge into the semi-finals.
“In my opinion we started to get nervous (after halftime) and made a lot of mistakes in defence and offence which showed in the final score,” Boglarka Neszmely told LEN TV.
FULL LINE-UP FOR THE LEN WOMEN’S EUROPEAN U19 WATER POLO CHAMPIONSHIPS