Brguljan: I wouldn't change these guys, even if they were always eighth

Placement in the quarter-finals of the Olympic Games was the first goal of the Montenegrin water polo players.

They achieved it, and then stopped - a series of four defeats, three in a row in the elimination phase, made the "sharks" performance in Tokyo finish in eighth place.

The last team to beat them was Italy.

"We are tired and exhausted. There are also disappointments, we hoped, and maybe we expected too much. I believe we could have played better, but this here is the highest possible level - everyone comes with great desire and in my opinion this was a good school to know for the future that, nevertheless, we are not exactly at the level we thought we were. This team is young, good, it is an honor and a pleasure to play, and I would not change these guys for players from any other national team. Even if it is always eighth were. We will see what will happen next, the analysis will follow, and the players are absolutely to blame. They are like heroes when a result is made," said captain Draško Brguljan.

What was missing from our selection? Short and clear - higher quality.

"We don't have the strength of the squad that was in Budapest at the European Championship. But we weren't even at the level of those games, to begin with. We didn't have four or five motivated individuals who would bring the advantage, maybe against Spain, so I don't know what would have happened later it was. As for the form - I don't know, it turned out like that now, somehow it seems to me that the team had a turbulent form, and it was not easy because of the pace of the games. I don't think we were in top form in the World League, although we won, because I believed that we could do even better at the Olympic Games. It turned out that it was not quite like that. I hope that nothing ended today, but that something nice started," concluded the experienced water polo player.