Funchal 2026: European Water Polo Championships Day 5 match previews

Match previews, Day 5 – Friday 30 January
(Local times shown)

Group Stage II
(9th-16th place)

Group G

13:00 Germany v Türkiye

• The young Germans, with renowned maestro Karsten Seehafer in charge, who led Waspo Hannover’s men’s side to Champions League Final Eights in the past, couldn’t make any upsets in the group stage, after a tough defeat against France and beating Slovakia with ease, they had to bow to world champions Greece and now they set their eyes to do better than in the previous three editions when they finished 10th (2022) or 11th (2020, 2024).

• Though the Turks finished the first group stage with three defeats, they managed to score 11 goals against Italy, their second best effort ever at the championships (they netted 13 to Slovakia two years ago), but achieving that against a top-tier team is a huge feat for them, as they had often been shut out by the elite sides in the past.

• At European Championships, they met once, in 2018, with the Germans winning 12-9. They had two more matches in the qualifications, in 2015 (23-10) and last summer (15-9). Their closest encounter came in the World Cup Division II tournament in 2024, where the Germans edged the Turks 12-11 – so in total, they are 4-0 up in head-to-heads.

Group Stage II
(9th-16th place)

Group G

15:00 Serbia v Slovakia

•The Serbs have to bounce back from a devastating loss to Croatia where they were outpowered by their archrivals, when in the second half a 0-6 rush crushed them – and the 8-10 loss ended their dreams of making the top eight. They also had a tough one with Türkiye where they prevailed 9-8 (and were swept aside by Italy, as expected, 6-17), so power-reserves might be tested in this match, though they are still considered favourites.

• Slovakia couldn’t really withstand the pressure from the higher ranked sides – indeed, they faced a series of tough rivals, Greece (7-24), France (13-21) and Germany (11-22), who all passed the 20-goal barrier against them, though they also showed some strength in their last game against France as they could score double-digits for the second time here.

• They have met twice before at European Championships. Slovakia won 6-2 in 2020, then the Serbs needed two years to improve a lot and beat the Slovaks 9-6 in Split.

Group Stage II
(9th-16th place)

Group H

17:15 Portugal v Switzerland

• A nice 12-7 win against Romania, which earned Portugal three points to start with this second group stage, and two calculated defeats against the two giants Spain (7-22) and Hungary (3-28) – this is the brief summary of the hosts’ run so far.

• Switzerland, back to the top table after 30 years, had to settle for three defeats in the group stage though none of those were surprising as they faced only higher ranked sides, the Netherlands (2-28), Israel (9-25) and Great Britain (6-18).

• They met once, back in 2015, in the qualifications, where Portugal won 15-9 and went on advancing to their first-ever Europeans.

Group Stage II
(9th-16th place)

Group H

19:15 Great Britain v Romania

• After bowing to Israel 6-11 in their decisive match, the Brits had to settle for a campaign among the teams gunning for the 9-16th places, a setback after they finished 7th two years ago. Their other two group stage matches produced the expected outcome, a 4-14 loss to the Netherlands, and an 18-6 win against Switzerland, which landed them three points to bring over to this second stage.

• For Romania, the group stage had promised little or nothing to cheer about. Their matches against Olympic champions Spain (4-22) and world silver medallists Hungary (3-28) ended in lopsided contests and they couldn’t really force a tight battle against host Portugal either (7-12).

• This is going to be two sides’ first match at a European Championships.

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Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics 

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