LAUSANNE, Switzerland, April 20. THE team of Serbia was the last European qualifier for the Super Final of the FINA Men's Water Polo World League 2011, after having narrowly defeated Spain in Belgrade by 14-12 (on penalty shootout). At the end of the regular time, the two teams were tied at 10-10, and at 2:13 to the end of the match the Iberians were even leading by 10-9. A precious goal of Pijetlovic with 1:42 to go balanced the score and obliged to a decisive penalty shootout, in which the Balkan team was luckier. <\/p>\n
In Group A, Serbia (the defending champion) finished with 14 points (five wins and one loss \u2013 defeat with Germany in the previous round), while Spain was second with 11 points (three wins and three losses). The other match of the group (MKD-GER) finished exactly on the same note, with the home team winning by 14-12, after a penalty shootout.<\/p>\n
In Group B, Montenegro (already qualified after the previous round) got an easy victory at home against Russia (14-3), while Turkey lost in Istanbul against Romania (5-11).<\/p>\n
In Group C, where things were previously decided, Croatia also needed a penalty shootout to overcome Italy in Rijeka (10-8), and Greece went to the Netherlands to beat the local team by 7-3.<\/p>\n
The European squads qualified for the Super Final, to be held from June 21-26 in Florence (ITA) are: Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Italy (as organiser). <\/p>\n
Final rankings (European groups):
\nGROUP A: 1. SRB, 14 pts (5 wins, 1 loss); 2. ESP, 11 (3W, 3L); 3. GER, 9 (3W, 3L); 4. MKD, 2 (1W, 5L)
\nGROUP B: 1. MNE, 17 pts (6W); 2. ROU, 13 (4W, 2L); 3. RUS, 6 (2W, 4L); 4. TUR, 0 (6L)
\nGROUP C: 1. CRO, 17 pts (6W); 2. ITA, 13 (4W, 2L); 3. GRE, 6 (2W, 4L); 4. NED, 0 (6L)<\/p>\n
Remaining programme of the FINA Men's Water Polo World League 2011:
\nAmericas Preliminaries: May 12-15 (Costa Mese, USA)
\nAsia\/Oceania Preliminaries: May 9-13 (Auckland, NZL) & May 16-20 (Sydney, AUS)
\nSUPER FINAL: June 21-26 (Florence, ITA)<\/p>\n
The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine<\/i>. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World<\/i> offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World<\/i> reserves the right to choose what material is posted.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LAUSANNE, Switzerland, April 20. THE team of Serbia was the last European qualifier for the Super Final of the FINA Men's Water Polo World League 2011, after having narrowly defeated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-water-polo","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n