European Championships 2016, Qualification, Round 1
Favourites on their way to Belgrade

The favourite sides didn’t make any mistake in the first round of the qualifications: they have all taken the right track towards Belgrade, host city of the 2016 European Water Polo Championships.

Among the men the only minor upset happened in Tbilisi, where the Georgians lost to Slovakia. The hosts made their first appearance at the European stage last year in Budapest and started this tournament with high hopes but the Slovakians stunned them on the opening day with a well-deserved 10-11 win. Since Belgrade will see the first edition featuring 16 teams, the Georgians can still earn their berth in the next round as 8 teams will go through.
The other groups didn’t bring such close battles. The Netherlands had a tighter encounter against France (12-9), though after the first quarter (7-2) the Dutch controlled the rest of the game. They also set a scoring record against Latvia’s newly formatted national team by beating them 52-0.
The other two sides with a clean sheet were Russia and Germany – both have virtually reached the Europeans in 2016.
In the women’s tournies six of the eight participating teams will qualify so the real excitements have been expected in the games played between the lower ranked sides. Croatia managed to beat Israel comfortably (12-7) while Switzerland doesn’t seem to have a real chance to be in the hunt for the Belgrade berths.

European Championships 2016, Qualification, Round 1

MEN
Group A (Tbilisi)
1. Slovakia 9, 2. Georgia 6, 3. Portugal 3, 4. Switzerland 0

Group B (Gorzow)
1. Russia 9, 2. Poland 6, 3. Israel 3, 4. Ukraine 0

Group C (Utrecht)
1. Netherlands 9, 2. France 6, 3. Malta 3, 4. Latvia 0

Group D (Istanbul)
1. Germany 9, 2. Turkey 6, 3. Belarus 3, 4. Lithuania 0