2019 World Water Polo Champs: Croatia beats America to reach quarterfinal

by croatiaweek
July 17, 2019
in Sport

(Photo: Orange Pictures / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto)

GWANGJU, 17 July 2019 – Croatia has reached the quarterfinal of the 2019 FINA World Water Polo Championships in Gwangju, South Korea with an impressive win against America 17:7 (1:4, 3:5, 2:4, 1:4) today.

After a big win against Australia in the opening match, today’s victory means Croatia wins their group and advances through to the quarterfinals.

(Photo: Orange Pictures / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto)

It was another brilliant performance from Ivica Tucak’s men. Today’s goalscorers were Vrlić, Vukičević, Joković and Benić with three each, Bušlje with two and one each from Lončar, Šetka and Garcia.

(Photo: Orange Pictures / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto)

“I’m absolutely happy. But this game has to go down in the diary as one of our fantastic games. Now we are going to go out and enjoy ourselves first. The story in our group is over and we got what we wanted and finished first. But now we should forget it. Every game next is the most important. We have a wonderful atmosphere in the squad. Our feet are firmly on the ground, very humble. That is what I do not every want to get out of their heads,” said Ivica Tucak.

#4 LONCAR Luka (CRO), #1 WOLF Alex (USA) (Photo: Orange Pictures / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto)

Croatia now faces Kazakhstan in the final group game on 19 July.

“Again, from the start to the end we played brilliant. Again, an unexpected goal difference. We really did not expect to be so dominant in the two games in the first round. They were not easy, but the results showed they were. But most importantly, we have achieved two victories and now we can quietly wait for the quarterfinals and our opponent, do some training and rest a bit. Our first goal was to win the group and that is what we achieved, concluded player Loren Fatovic.