The junior water polo team of Montenegro experienced a convincing defeat in the derby of the second round of the European Championship in Podgorica.
Unexpectedly - our U19 team scored as many as 17 goals in the duel with Hungary, and the final score of 17:8 best reflects the events at the SC "Morača" pool.
The defense failed, the attack was no better either, so coach Milan Ćirović was rightfully angry after the match.
"In order to win, we first have to learn how to behave in defeats and when things don't go well. When the car goes downhill, we have to fight, to believe, and obviously we have to talk about that after this game," said Ćirović.
Already in the second quarter, Montenegro was left without two important players - captain Jovan Vujović and guard Damjan Vujičić were excluded with the right of substitution.
"I am satisfied with the combativeness of the players who remained in the water after those two exclusions. The referee's criteria was correct and we have to look at ourselves, to correct the mistakes we made in order to be better in the rest of the competition," added Ćirović.
Our national team led 1:0 and 2:1, it was also 3:3 and 4:4, and then there were goals in the net by Ilija Radović, who finished the match with six saves.
Montenegro had only two scorers last night - five goals were scored by Marko Mršić, three by Petar Vujošević.
"Early on, we were without two players in the rotation, that made things difficult for us. Hungary is a complete team with excellent swimmers, who are unpredictable, when they need to, they know how to strike... Does this defeat discourage us? No, not at all, let's move on , although we didn't expect such a big defeat. We have to look ahead and learn lessons," Vujošević said.
Montenegro has to go to the round of XNUMX, it is certain from the second position.
The last duel in the group awaits her tomorrow (against Turkey at 19:XNUMX), and if there are no surprises - on Wednesday, at the same time, her rival will be Georgia in the fight for a place in the quarterfinals.
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