HUN v GRE 9-9

Tamas Marcz, head coach, Hungary:
“At the end of the day, I’m satisfied with this result as we came from behind. I’m really appreciating Greek water polo and what their head coach has been doing in recent years with his team. Playing against them is never easy and we really had to fight to claim at least a point in this very nice match. What made me happy that I saw our young players battling hard, never giving in, remaining tough and determined. This is a good base from where we can move on.”

Theodoros Vlachos, head coach, Greece:
“You’ll never have a game in hand when you play with Hungary. At certain periods we did well, but at the beginning of the third they scored twice in a short time, one from action and one from a penalty and our big lead had gone immediately. Later we had the chances again to gain a bigger lead but my players didn’t react well. We had man-ups but bad decisions came in succession. I expect the players to focus better in these situations, especially in the fourth quarter as these are the moments when games are decided. Despite this, I think we played a very nice and exciting game, a really good opening for the Europa Cup Super Final.”

ITA v ESP 4-11

Alessandro Campagna, head coach, Italy:
“I haven’t seen my team playing like this for years, it was our worst performance for a long time. The first period was a disaster, we were sleeping, right the first shot showed that and we could never really come back. Since we didn’t make any specific preparations for this event it was even harder to find anything to improve this situation. Spain did a great job, we congratulate them, they played aggressively and well organised they deserved this win. I don’t want to make excuses, at this stage I have to assess what can work and what can’t to make some progress in the future.”

David Martin, head coach, Spain:
“We are very happy but we know that this result is not real. We started the game well, defended well, made some shots and gained a big lead. Italy made mistakes at the same time, some unusual ones so this is why the picture is not real. I’m happy that my team could maintain the level of defence despite Dani Lopez was injured, we showed that we were a great, united team, and of course we have a great second goalkeeper Eduardo Bejar who also performed well.”

FRA v CRO 5-20

Nenad Vukanic, head coach, France:
“First of all, we are really happy to be here and have the chance to play with the best seven teams in the world. We are here to learn from such rivals as world champion Croatia. We are in the same group with three of the top four teams from the last Olympics, it’s a tough challenge but also an excellent opportunity. We had great games in the qualifications against Romania, Spain and Hungary, we make some changes in our game and try new things here.”

Ivica Tucak, head coach, Croatia:
“I think we started this tournament in a good way but this is a game we have to forget immediately and start to focus on the next one against Montenegro. We have our playing style both in defence and in offence, we had some good counters, we applied those and never stopped or slowed down.”

SRB v MNE 9-5

Dejan Savic, head coach, Serbia:
“It was a good game to start this tournament, our defence worked well though I think the difference between the two teams was not real. I wouldn’t agree that the goalkeepers made the difference today, we just made most of our chances, had some good plays in 6 on 5s and had a good rhythm, this was the decisive factor today.”

Vladimir Gojkovic, head coach, Montenegro:
“Congratulations for Serbia, they were the better team today. We played well in the first half, I think we also did a fine job in defence for most of the time we just missed too many chances in offence. Perhaps if we score the penalty and a man-up we would have gone even by half-time but we miss a couple of key players and it’s no doubt that Serbia has better quality now.”

5 April 2018