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Serbia wins again European Water Polo Championships

Xinhua, January 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

Serbia won 2016 Men's European Water Polo Championships for the third consecutive time by beating Montenegro by 10-8 (1-3, 2-1, 3-2, 4-2) at crowded Belgrade Arena on Saturday.

Final match played in front of 16,000 spectators in the capital of Serbia thus brought to its host yet another golden medal as well as secured its participation at the Summer Olympics to be held this year in Rio de Janeiro.

After an early lead of Montenegro (0-2) Serbia managed to bring uncertainty in the game at half time (3-4), only to even the score and took over the lead in fourth quarter of the match (7-6) and kept it to the end of the game.

Andrija Prlainovic, Milos Cuk and Milan Aleksic scored two goals each for the winning team of Serbia, while Drasko Brguljan, Aleksandar Radovic, Mladjan Janovic and Nikola Janovic scored two goals each for the runner-up Montenegro.

Serbia holds the title of the world champion since the 2015 world championships in Kazan, Russia, as well as two golden medals from European championships held in Eindhoven (2012) and Budapest (2014).

Andrija Prlainovic, best scorer of Serbian team was declared most valuable player, MVP of the tournament, by the organizer LEN (Ligue Europeenne de Natation).

He said after the match that the final was tough, that Montenegro played well but Serbia was stronger and more dominant.

"We started nervously, picking poor solution in attack, but we didn't give up. We played in a heavy rhythm and came out as a better opponent," Prlainovic said after the match according to Tanjug news agency.

Dusko Pjetlovic said that the match was played in a great atmosphere that a "player can witness once in his career".

"At one point I thought we were losing the match, but this was not possible to happen in this pool," he said, praising the cheering of Serbian fans throughout the final match.

Hungary ranked third at this year's European Water Polo Championships by beating Greece (13-10) on Saturday and will participate in a qualification tournament to reserve a ticket for Rio.

Serbian Water Polo team has been welcomed by dancing and shouting of thousands of fans at a celebration staged in front of the Belgrade City Assembly where fans also had the chance to watch the match on big screen and enjoy musical program. Endit