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Serbia, Brazil win hard battles at FINA men's water polo world league super final

Xinhua, June 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

Defending champion Serbia edged United States 10-8 to win the battle vie for the first place in Group B, while Brazil nailed down China 15-13 thanks to superb shootout scores on the third day at the FINA Men's Water Polo World League Super Final here on Thursday.

The unbeaten Serbia and the United States played the last group match like in the final as Serbia had 14 exclusion fouls with two key players out of play in the last quarter for bearing three fouls. Serbia led the game but never enlarged the goal diffidence when Filip Filipovic secured the victory for the defending champion with a high floating ball into the US gate at one minute 58 seconds left of the game.

In another Group B match, Brazil and China changed the lead as a seesaw from the beginning to the end. China led 9-7, 10-8, 11-10 and seemed to seal with the victory before Brazil kept shooting to tie 11-11 with 29 seconds left of the game.

During the shootout, the Brazilian goalie Slobodan Soro showed his experience and skills by blocking 3 of 5 shots from China and helped Brazil to place third in Group B with 1 win 2 losses.

"We had some errors in passing and defence since we are a young team and lack of experience. It was a good lesson for us to learn something from the shootout. We really hope to win a game at the Super Final," said Liang Zhongxing, captain of China.

In Group A matches, Italy crushed Japan 17-10 and Greece blocked Australia 10-5.

On Friday's quarter-finals, Italy play Brazil, Australia face the United States, Greece meet China, Japan go against Serbia. Endit