Excellent Effort Defeats Greece But Isn’t Enough For World League Finals Place
- 12 May 2016 9:00 AM
Hungary put on a superb display to beat Greece 13-10 but it is their mediterranean opponents who progress to the World League finals in China in June having denied the hosts the five-goal margin of victory they needed to become group winners. After a disappointing first period in which Hungary fell 3-1 and then 4-2 behind, Tibor Benedek’s team roared back into contention with a 5-2 second-quarter success to lead 7-6 at half-time.
The goals were coming from the usual variety of sources, two superb finishes from Balázs Hárai added to braces of goals from Márton Vámos and Dénes Varga and a howitzer of a throw from Gergő Zalánki.
The third quarter saw a predictable response from the world championship bronze-medallists but Hungary still held them 3-3 to lead 9-8 with one quarter remaining.
A remarkable win seemed on the cards when they surged 12-9 ahead with more than five minutes remaining but this Greek national team is made of stern stuff, a team which kept sneaking goals to stop Hungary extending their lead to the magic five-goal margin.
The final score was 13-10, not quite what Hungary were aiming for but still very encouraging ahead of the Olympic summer to come.
Source waterpolo.hu
MTI photo: Ujvári Sándor
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