Singapore 2025: Hungary men and women aiming for golden water polo double

For the second time in their history, the Hungary men’s and women’s teams have both reached the World Championships final – and they are targeting a golden double, a feat that has never been achieved by any nation before. In the women’s final, Greece are going for a second title after standing on top of the podium in 2011, while the Spanish men are seeking a fourth gold after triumphs in 1998, 2001 and 2022.

Men’s tournament

While the quarter-finals lacked the usual tense second-half moments, the semis were full of drama as the four European powerhouses produced absolute thrillers.

Spain got off to the better start against Greece and after another early violent action call, which saw Aristeidis Chaylvopoulos ejected for four minutes, they rallied to a 6-2 lead (including a 3-0 run during the constant six on five situation).

The Greeks, who made the most of a similar scenario in the quarters against Italy, managed to pull one back shortly after getting back to full strength, but still trailed 3-6 at half-time.

What came next was astonishing. The Spaniards’ sharp offensive game gradually eroded, a couple of fine saves from Panagiotis Tzortzatos kept the Greeks in the game early in the third, but as time went by, the Spanish started missing the target, if they could take a shot at all.

One minute before the break, they lost their top scorer, Alvaro Granados, who was red carded after a face-hit (though it didn’t appear intentional, nor brutal and he immediately apologised) – but that still didn’t seem tragic in the given circumstances.

Especially since the Greeks weren’t clicking either, but they at least cut one more from their deficit with a great bouncer from Stylianos Argyropoulos, however, it stood 4-6 before the final period.

But unlike in their game in Hungary, Spain couldn’t lift their game in the final quarter. They went on struggling up front, and when Nikolaos Gkillas sent the ball to the net from the perimeter two minutes into the fourth, the Greeks felt they had a chance.

And in 1:17 minutes, they were back to even as Evangelos Pouros’ fierce blast from the wing made it 6-6. The Spaniards were in trouble, they missed their seventh man-up and with 1:48 to go, Gkillas hit another one from the distance to give Greece a 7-6 lead.

It was an incredible 5-0 run from being 2-6 down, with the last Spanish hit coming 3:13 minutes before the half-time-break, so as the match turned into its final minute, their offence was yet to score for 19 minutes.

Felipe Perrone attempted to get his team back on track, taking his sixth shot of the afternoon, but the ball slammed against the post (he was 0/6) and there were only 36 seconds remaining.

The Greeks burned the time successfully, even though coach Theodoros Vlachos didn’t call his second time-out. When Spain got the ball back with 0:04 on the clock, five of their attackers were already set at the perimeter and their most dangerous shooter, Alberto Munarriz, forced a 6m free-throw.

He wasn’t at his best either and had missed all four of his previous shots – but not this one, which matted the most. After 19:12 minutes, with 0:01 on the clock, Spain scored, saving the game to a shootout.

With the huge psychological boost, and the usual magic from Unai Aguirre between the posts, they prevailed. While Spain buried all their four shots, Aguirre delivered two fine saves, the second one with his head to send Spain to the final for the third time in the last five editions.

In the final, Spain will face Hungary, who edged out Olympic title-holders Serbia in another classic clash of the two giants.

This immense semi-final was a 37-goal thriller with 43 major fouls – a tremendous physical battle where the Magyar youngsters’ speed ultimately prevailed over the Serbs’ physical strength and experience.

Hungary stormed to a 6-2 early lead in the first, but the Serbs tightened their defence, made the most of their man-ups and came back to 8-8 by half-time.

The Serbs forced the match into the style they preferred – especially in the second quarter – a strong positional-game, man-up/man-down battle, something they excel at, and they also prevented the Magyars from launching fast counters.

However, the Hungarians hit back in the third as whenever they could, they geared up and limited the Serbs’ man-ups, plus their fast swims were starting to tire their rivals out.

After 10-10, Hungary scored twice in a row once more, and after 11-12, they did it again to make it 11-14.

The Serbs were fading, while the Magyars had more in the tank. Gergo Fekete hit his fourth and young leftie Akos Nagy buried his third with 0:04 to go, which gave Hungary a commanding 12-16 lead after an action-packed period ending in a 4-8 partial result.

And when Hungary added more early in the fourth to expand the gap to five, at 12-17 and 13-18, they seemed to have it. Still, the Serbs never gave in and as usual, Dusan Mandic led their final assault.

The lethal left-handed giant hit one from the distance (interestingly, that was Serbia’s very first action goal, early in the fourth), converted a penalty, then netted his sixth with an incredible backhander from the wing for 15-18, and there was still three minutes to play.

Now the Hungarians were in danger of running out of steam, and in a span of 74 seconds, they conceded two more, as Vasilje Martinovic and Milos Cuk both sent the ball home from the perimeter. Serbia were back in it at 17-18 with 1:50 to go.

The Magyars managed to force a six on five, so it was a match ball with 1:34 on the clock and Vendel Vigvari stepped up to score after their 4:30-minute long drought for 17-19.

The Serbs had 78 seconds to pull off a miracle, but Mandic’s last shot smashed against the bar, and after the Magyars burnt their possession, Cuk’s shot somehow bounced in from the blocking hands, but it was too late.

The Hungarians kept the ball with ease in the remaining 25 seconds to celebrate another huge win in Singapore.

Their road through the knockout phase couldn’t have been any more challenging: in the quarters they knocked out the 2024 world champions, Croatia, in the semis they beat the 2024 Olympic champions, and next up in the final are Spain, the 2024 European champions.

Women’s tournament

Just like in the World Cup Super Final in April, Hungary and Greece will have a showdown in the gold medal match.

But unlike in the men’s semis, both sides made their semi-final triumphs look easy. Considering their respective rivals, the USA for Greece and Spain for Hungary, those were tremendous achievements.

The Greeks needed more than seven minutes to find some rhythm, but once they did, they scored twice in 37 seconds to tie the game as the Americans had gone up by two by then.

They really got going in the second and staged a 3-0 run to take a 5-3 lead and held on for a 6-5 advantage by half-time.

Still, the rejuvenated American side hit back early in the third to retake the lead, and three minutes into the quarter they were 7-8 up.

However, the Greeks managed to tighten their defence, with Ioanna Stamatopoulou coming up with a couple of huge saves to shut out the Americans for the remaining five minutes of this period.

At the other end, back-to-back action goals from Maria Patra and Stefania Santa sent the Greeks ahead before the last break at 9-8.

After a quick exchange of goals, a fierce battle ensued. The US pushed hard for an equaliser, but the Greek defence withstood the pressure.

It was felt whoever scores first here might have the edge to win this clash. Greece killed two US six on fives and after three and a half minutes they could strike first – Eleni Xenaki’s genius made the difference.

And even though the US denied their next woman-up, Greece converted the rebound, then Vasiliki Plevritou sent the ball home from the wing, and a minute later she added another which decided the match at 13-9.

The US time-out came perhaps a bit late, with 1:38 remaining, and their seven on six didn’t work, so Plevritou could complete a hat-trick with an easy put-away.

This 4-0 run landed Greece in the final, for the second time in their history – the first was their only golden moment at the three majors when they grabbed the world title in 2011.

Back then they faced China – now it’s going to be another showdown with Hungary, who managed to shut down a painfully long series of defeats against Spain in the most spectacular way.

Ever since the 2012 European Championships quarter-finals, Spain bettered the Magyars in 10 knockout matches in a row, across Olympics, Worlds and Europeans, mostly in semis or quarters.

The Magyars may have halted that by upending them in the World Cup semis in April, however, at the World Championships they were yet to break that curse.

Hungary needed eight minutes to set the stage for the breakthrough as they rallied to a sensational 6-1 lead. They completely stunned Spain by practically walking on the water, as whatever they did, it worked.

When the Spanish coach called a time-out at 4-1, the teams returned to the field after a minute, and six seconds later Hungary scored another as Dorottya Szilagyi stole the ball after the goalie’s restart and sent it to the empty net from the opposite half.

It was the most telling scene to highlight the difference in focus and readiness – and it just got worse from the Spaniards’ point of view.

At the moment Spain thought they were on the comeback trail – when Paula Crespi netted a six on five for 6-3 38 seconds into the second – the Magyars hit back with a 4-0 rush to send their opponents back to the bottom of the pool.

Never in the past decade have top-level Spanish sides, either the national teams or their top clubs, experienced anything similar, being down 3-10 with 2:30 to play before half-time.

Consequently, it was inevitable they had no idea how to respond. At the same time, the Hungarians, after going through so many painful experiences against the Spaniards, never wanted to risk slowing down.

It led to one of the most incredible scenes in the third when Hungary went 14-5 up against the reigning Olympic champions.

And it was a true team-effort, not an individual’s exceptional day – as no single player hit more than three, and nine of the 12 field-players scored at least one.

It was also their woman-down defence that really made this outcome possible, as they killed 13 of their opponent’s 15 six on fives – a never-seen before feat in any matches played by the mighty Spaniards.

Spain could finally add some goals in the fourth, but the game had been over for a while, and the Hungarians enjoyed celebrating a huge victory.

It’s going to be their third World Championships final in the last four editions, but the first in which they don’t have to meet the big US team, unlike in 2022 and 2024.

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Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics

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