Having Serbia, Croatia, Germany, France, Spain and Hungary in Group B with the best three teams being advanced to the next stage means that those spots will probably go to Croatia, Serbia and Hungary, but Spain would be able to kick up this prediction.

Right after the opening ceremony the Spanish and the Hungarian teams lined up at the pool side immeditely, with the majority of the fans in the stands supporting the reigning world champion Hungarian team.

As it was expected Spain seemed to be able to keep up with the overall favourites of the tournament, and finished the first quarter 2 all. The first exclusion came early in the 1st minute, but Hungary’s Madaras couldn’t make advance of it. Later the other side missed the extra player shot as well.

After a few other exclusions on both sides and the goalkeepers showing great form, finally Spain got the advantage with Molina’s ball finding the way to the net, shot from quite far, but Hungary had an answer: Dániel Varga made the tribune blow up, and soon they grabbed the lead with a succesful shot of Erdélyi. But the first 8 minutes did not come to an end with that, and Fernandez could tie a few seconds before the finish.

The second quarter showed a totally different play from Spain and Hungary started ruling the match. Szivós from the home side took the ball after the sprint, and after a few unsuccesful attempts it was again Varga who found a hole on the Spanish defence, but they were able to tie again. However, team captain Varga’s goal the same minute seemed to wake up Hungary from the shock of the home atmosphere and quickly after him also Toth and Hosnyánszky showed themselves with successful shots. Tóth was sent out and Gabi Hernandez requested the first timeout of the meeting. The tactical discussion was useful and the end of the second quarter left them in a difficult situation but at least they were able to score.

The 3rd quarter started with a Spanish action cut short by hungarian defence. Soon after Barcelo’s fault helped Hungary’s Madaras to shot, Aguilar was unable to fend off. The game got quicker and Miguell Alfarez’s goal modified the result on the screen to 7-5. Another extra player shot let Hungary ahead of Spain by 3 goals again, with Madaras placing the ball to the left corner followed by a strong shot of Erdelyi: 9-5. Hungarian head coach asked for timeout but his team couldn’t increase the advantage. Their opponents – after another timeout and Hungarian exclusion – got one closer by Munarriz.

Before the last quarter it was pretty clear that Spain has no chance against the hosts having all the fans behind on the stands. The last part of the game began with a penalty scored by Varga. Gor-Nagy was sent out after his third fault and Albert Espanol took his chance to help his team with a wonderful goal.

After that Spain seemed to ressurect and Mallarach scored, but the newly born enthusiasm was cut short by Varga, who counted his 5th goal – which was the very last hit of the game. The final score was 12-9 to Hungary.

Results of DAY 1:

Croatia-Germany 10-5 (4-3, 2-0, 3-0, 1-2)

Romania-Georgia 11-6 (3-4, 3-1, 2-0, 3-1)

France-Serbia 5-16 (1-4, 1-3, 0-3, 3-6)

Montenegro-Greece 11-6 (1-1, 4-1, 3-2, 3-2)

Italy-Russia 13-6 (3-1, 4-3, 4-1, 2-1)

Hungary-Spain 12-9 (2-2, 4-2, 3-2, 3-3)

Source: ecwaterpolo2014.com