WATER POLO: FAVOURITES FACE FRANCE IN FINAL
Montenegro served up a sublime exhibition of water polo as
they cruised through to the final of the LEN European Nations
Trophy at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.
The tournament favourites stormed to a 26-1 semi-final victory
over Belarus as they stepped up a gear to clearly state their
intentions of returning home with a Gold medal. They made
Belarus - a team who beat Great Britain 10-5 in Friday's quarter-final
- look ordinary.
The team from the former Yugoslavia will play reigning champions
France and look close to unstoppable in their debut in the
competition. France defeated Macedonia 12-9 in a tight second
semi-final on Saturday.
Belarus will play Macedonia for third place and a place at
the European qualification tournament for the Beijing Olympics
in 2008.
Britain will play against Ukraine bidding to win fifth place.
Eelco Uri's side have already secured a place in the LEN European
Championship qualification tournament in January 2008, surpassing
their own expectations. They beat Ukraine 10-9 in their Group
B match on Thursday to earn a place in the quarter-finals
and will be hoping for an equally impressive performance.
Montenegro lost on penalties to Serbia - with whom they won
the 2005 World Championships in Montreal before becoming an
independent country in June 2006 - on the eve of the competition
and will surely battle for medals at Olympics and World Championships
in future.
Nikola Janovic scored five against Belarus, while Vladimir
Gojkovic and Mladan Janovic each scored four. Mladan Janovic
moved to third in the tournament scorers' list with 19, while
Gojkovic and Nikola Janovic are one behind on 18. France captain
Frederic Audon heads the table with 38, while Great Britain
and Lancaster's Tom Curwen is second with 24 goals from six
games
Montenegro were equally as strong in defence, repelling any
threat Belarus could pose with a forthright press and scored
19 unanswered goals before Alexcei Zalugnyi finally got Belarus
on the score-sheet in the third period.
France had a much more even match. Audon scored four times
as he led his team to victory, while Risto Maljkovic and Marko
Basic each scored hat-tricks for Macedonia.
Tomorrow's fixtures:
09:00 Israel v Malta (Play-off for 9th and 10th place)
10:30 Turkey v Poland (Play-off for 7th and 8th place)
12:00 Ukraine v Great Britain (Play-off for 5th and 6th place)
14:00 Belarus v Macedonia (Bronze Medal Match) Medal Ceremony
- Bronze 15:30 Montenegro v France (Final) Medal Ceremony
- Gold and Silver
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