Belgrade 2026: European Water Polo Championships Day 10 match previews

Men’s European Water Polo Championships, Belgrade 2026

Match previews, Day 10 – Monday 19 January
(local times shown)

Group Stage II
Group F

15:30 Georgia v Romania

• Neither side can reach the semis, but this is still a massive game, as the winners may look for a classification match for the 7th place, where a 2027 World Championship berth might be at stake.

• These two clashed in a somewhat similar situation two years ago when the Romanians, coming from Division II then, ousted the Georgians in the crossovers, made the top eight and went on to qualify for the World Championships and from there to the Olympics.

• They have met eight times since Georgia first qualified for the Europeans in 2014. The first four matches (also including two World League qualifiers) went to Romania, who also won in Belgrade 10 years ago, 12-6. However, in their last four matches, the Romanians have had only one win, though that was that game in Zagreb where they routed the Georgians 18-11. Before, at the 2018 Europeans, the game was tied 5-5, earlier a prep match saw the first Georgian win (5-6), and their very last encounter ended in a rout as the Georgians dismantled their rivals 24-12 in their own home, Otopeni, at the World Cup Division One tournament in the play-offs for the 9-11th places.

• Fun fact: Both sides are gunning for the chance to repeat their recent successes, at least to finish 8th at the European Championships – for the Georgians this was their best ever result, while for the Romanians this was their top effort since 2012. Georgia achieved that in 2022, while the Romanians in 2024. Only the winners of this match may have a chance for that, since the crossovers have been erased in the classification process, in this stage, the 4th ranked teams will play for the 7th place and the 5th ranked ones for the 9th place.

Group Stage II
Group F

18:00 Greece v Italy

• Both sides have won each of their matches contested here in Belgrade. For the Greeks, this includes their huge win over Croatia, which means that anything other than a regular-time loss would send them to the semis. An Italian win wouldn’t be the end of the world for the Greeks either, though in that case, a three-way tie would also loom on the horizon with Italy and Croatia clashing in the last round. For Italy, this is going to be their first real test, though they had to dig deep to beat the Georgians two days ago.

• With two giants involved, their common history offers an endless number of historic matches to reflect on. In the last 15 years, they have met 23 times, with Italy leading their head-to-head record 13-7, besides 3 draws (interestingly, two of those came at the Olympics, in 2012 and in 2021).

• At the European Championships, in the recent editions, Italy prevailed on the last two occasions, in 2024 (15-8) and in 2020 (10-6), while they drew in 2014 (9-9).

• When Greece upended the Italians 17-11 in their last match at the World Championships in Singapore, that also ended the Greeks’ quarter-final curse against the Italians (Greece built a huge lead after the 4min ejection of Italy’s Iocchi Grata). Before that, Italy won three high-stake QF matches on the big stage, at the 2016 Olympics (9-5), then at the 2019 Worlds (7-6) and in 2024 (11-10). Greece’s only big-time win was in 2015 when they beat Italy for the bronze medal in a shootout (7-7, 4-2).

• Fun fact: The longest serving head coach at this championships is Italy’s Alessandro Campagna, who is celebrating – if he does that at all… – the 25th anniversary of his coaching career as his national team’s boss. In fact, seven of those years were spent in Greece – after his highly successful debut with the Settebello in 2001 (silver at the Europeans, bronze at the Worlds), he accepted the Greeks’ offer before their home Olympics and went on guiding them till 2008. Under Campagna, the Greeks reached unprecedented heights with semi-final appearances in three straight years at two Worlds (2003, 2005) and the Olympics in between (2004). In Montreal 2005, they claimed their first-ever medal at a major event, a World Championship bronze.

Group Stage II
Group F

20:30 Croatia v Türkiye

• This is going to be the last build-up match for the Croats before their decisive clash with Italy in the last round, which is looming large on the horizon.

• Croatia have played back-to-back finals in the last two editions of the Europeans, and are clear favourites to maintain their perfect record against the Turks on Monday. Their overall recent head-to-head history stands at 11-0.

• At the Europeans they have met twice, and both were lopsided contests – 16-3 in 2010 and 23-2 in 2018; eight years have now passed, so it is time for another battle.

• Fun fact: In recent years, Turkish clubs were keen to contract Croatian players – the former greats like Paolo Obradovic, Niksa Dobud and Igor Hinic all spent a couple of seasons at Istanbul-based clubs. Ivan Bebic – son of the legendary Milivoj, who is currently a member of the EA Technical WP Committee – even had a spell in the Turkish national team. But who can make the Croatian preparations even easier is Pavo Markovic, member of Ivica Tucak’s coaching staff, who just three years ago played for ENKA Istanbul and even won the league title with the club.

Watch all the action live from Belgrade on Eurovision Sport

For the full schedule/results/tables from the European Championships, click here

For tickets to all the games at the men’s European Water Polo Championships in Belgrade, click here

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Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics

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