Spain wins bronze in men's water polo after defeating Serbia

For the third consecutive World Cup Spain continues in the wave, this Saturday they won the bronze medal against Serbia (6-9), in a game in which the defense and, especially, the goal Edu Lorrio made the difference.

He could not repeat getting into the final, after a scary movie ending against Hungary, but David Martín's men add a bronze to the gold medal last summer at the World Cup in Budapest and the silver in 2019 in Gwangju.

Spain kept a clean sheet for eighteen minutes. When the Serbs pressed the most (5-6) at halftime, the defense appeared and, especially Lorrio. The goalkeeper, in the shadow of Unai Aguirre throughout the tournament, signed an impressive performance, with a success rate of 68%, stopping thirteen of the nineteen shots from the Balkans.

And that after the psychological downturn that led to the defeat in the semifinals against Hungary at the last second, Spain had a hard time getting down to business.

From the start they seemed the Serbs most involved in the game. more intense. The Balkans, in full reconstruction, found themselves with the possibility of fighting for bronze, after the Greeks did not give them any option in the semifinals and they did not want to miss the opportunity.

And Spain suffered at first. He started low on the scoreboard, with a goal from Strahinja Rasovic, the top scorer of the tournament, he recovered with two goals from Álvaro Granados and Alex Bustos, in two superiorities. But at the end of the first quarter everything was balanced (3-3), with another goal from Rasovic.

Those of David Martín had to recover emotionally, but also to the harshness imposed by the Serbs in the pool. In the second quarter, Tahull made it 3-4 for Spain and Jaksic balanced the game.

In the Neo Beograd scorers' duel, between Granados and Rasovic, the Spaniard balanced the balance with two consecutive goals, the last one from a penalty, to give David Martín's men 5-6 at halftime.

Edu Lorrio, substitute today for Unai Aguirre, had a prominent role in Spain's takeoff on the scoreboard in the third half. Four interventions by the Sabadell goalkeeper, one of them in a shot from the buoy, gave air to David Martín's men.

The partial reached 0-3, with two good goals from Munárriz, from a kick, and from Perrone. Felipe Perrone (5-9) scored a goal and only conceded one goal, five seconds from time, and due to VAR intervention for the final 6-9.

Next year will be decisive for the team's Olympic future. They need to qualify for the Paris Games and they will have two opportunities to do so, one in January at the Netanya European Championship (one place for the champion) and the other (with two places at stake) at the Doha World Cup next February.