The junior water polo team of Montenegro qualified for the quarter-finals of the European Championship in Burgas, for players up to 19 years old.
In the dramatic match of the first knockout phase, the Montenegrin water polo players were better than the Netherlands 16:15 (2:1, 3:2, 5:4, 1:4, 5:4).
In the third quarter, they had a convincing advantage and practically won the match, but a fall in the last part of the match almost cost them the quarterfinals.
The hero was the goalkeeper Andrije Bjelic, who in the fifth series of penalties saved Fabije Jukić's shot, and previously stopped the rival's last shot in the regular part.
In the battle for the semi-finals, tomorrow at 15:XNUMX, they will play against Serbia, which recorded three triumphs in the group stage, over Greece, Germany and Italy.
The young Montenegrin fireball players, after a fairly equal two quarters, gained a three-goal advantage in the final part of the third period - 9:6, then 10:7 - and it seemed that they had broken the match.
The tenacious and fighting Dutch, however, with two goals in the last quarter, threatened dangerously and reduced the score to 10:9, and two minutes before the end they showed that they are not kidding and that they believe they can pull off a surprise.
They also scored the third goal in a row at 10:10, and after the new leadership of the Montenegrin selection, the Netherlands once again reached a tie, and had the last attack for a sensation.
Balša Vučković scored four goals for Montenegro, including five-pointers, Srđan Janović scored three, Draško Samardžić, Danilo Stupar and Tim Perov scored two each, and Danilo Roganović, Strahinja Gojković and Nikola Petrović scored one each.
Bonus video:
