Belgrade 2026: European Water Polo Championships Day 3 match previews

Men’s European Water Polo Championships, Belgrade 2026

Match previews, Day 3 – Monday 12 January (local times shown)

Group A

12:45 Malta v France

• Since both sides started with a heavy loss, this match is likely to decide the third qualifying spot in this group.

• France are the favourites and history is also on their side as they lead 7-0 in the head-to-heads at the European Championships and qualifiers. All the wins were convincing as well – at the Europeans they met in this Arena for the first time 10 years ago (17-7), then in 2018 (12-6) and in 2022 (15-8).

• The qualifiers were no different in the early years (20-8 and 20-6 in 2014, 21-4 in 2015), however, their most recent clash at the qualification tournament brought unexpected excitement. Back in June, the French had to come back from three goals down to force a shootout where they won the game in the end (10-10, 5-4).

• Fun fact: 10 years ago, in the Belgrade Arena, Steven Camilleri received the award for the tournament’s top scorer as he led the charts with 21 hits for Malta. The team’s current captain, now aged 39, was the real driving force for Malta as he scored more than half of their total goals (21 out of 40).

Group A

15:15 Hungary v Montenegro

• Under the new regulations, this clash has paramount importance as the points gained in this game will ‘travel’ with the teams to the following round. After cashing all three points in the opening round respectively, the winner of this match will have a huge advantage in the race for the semis in the next phase.

• Their most recent encounter happened last summer when Hungary won 15-8 in a prep tournament before the World Champs.

• At official tournaments, Hungary won their last 8 contests against Montenegro, including two crucial matches at the Europeans: a quarter-final in 2022 (11-8) and a semi-final in 2020 (10-8).

• Their last battle at a major was in Doha, where the Magyars claimed the 7th place after a shootout win at the 2024 Worlds (14-14, 4-2).

• Montenegro’s last win against Hungary dates back to the 2018 Europeans, when they edged out the Magyars 7-6 in the 5-8th places crossovers.

• The two sides faced off in several other high-stakes games – at first, Hungary had the upper hand like at the 2008 Olympic semi (11-9) and the 2013 World Championship final (8-7), then the Montenegrins pulled off big wins – like the semis here in the Belgrade Arena at the Europeans in 2016 (8-5) and later in that year in the Olympic quarters, in a shootout (9-9, 4-2).

• While last year Hungary made the podium at both majors (bronze in the World Cup, silver at the Worlds), the Montenegrins didn’t survive either quarter-finals at the same events (finishing 5th and 6th respectively).

• Fun fact: The two head coaches regularly clashed in the water during their playing career some quarter of a century ago as Hungary’s Zsolt Varga was a centre-forward while Dejan Savic, playing for Yugoslavia, was a 2m defender. As coaches, their first face-off came at the 2022 Europeans when Hungary routed Savic’s reshaped Serbian team (16-7) and soon after the event, Savic left the Serbian bench. Now he leads his young Montenegrin side against Varga’s World Championships silver medallists.

Group C

18:00 Netherlands v Israel

• The Netherlands were perhaps a tenth of a second away from causing an even bigger upset than grabbing a point from the hosts Serbs on the opening day. Despite losing the shootout, they showed tremendous character and are the overwhelming favourites to win this game and secure their spot in the next stage. Israel, in contrast, conceded 28 goals against Spain, perhaps it’s going to stand as the single game scoring record in the group stage.

• The Netherlands lead 3-0 in their head-to-head clashes, with the Israelis having never got close to forcing a tighter match. After two qualification wins (14-2 in 2015 and 10-4 in 2022), they met at the 2022 Europeans and the Dutch won again comfortably, 17-7, to clinch 11th place.

• Fun fact: Lars Ten Broek and Kas te Riele led the charge for the Dutch on the opening day, with the super duo netting nine of the 13 goals against the Serbs. Ten Broek hit five, te Riele four (his 5th was disallowed at the end), and the Hessels brothers, Sebastian and Benjamin added three more together. Ten Broek and the two Hessels have been ‘attending’ the Hungarian school in recent years (playing for clubs there, though Ten Broek moved to Spain, to Terrassa last summer), while leftie te Riele had a spell in Croatia and now plays in Greece with Vouliagmeni.

Group C

20:30 Spain v Serbia

• Spain had a blast on the opening day, setting the scoring record for the first round, right away in the first match with 28 goals against Israel. Serbia, in contrast, were only saved by the clock at the end against the Netherlands, but still dropped a valuable point against the Dutch as they could only win on penalties.

• One can find hardly any year without a game featuring these two giants. Limiting their head-to-heads to the last 15 years, two sharply contrasting eight-year phases can be identified. Between 2010 and 2018, the Serbs led 15-1, with a really painful win at the end of that period when they downed the Spaniards in a shootout in Barcelona, in the European Championship final. Spain’s lonely win came five years earlier, in the same Picornell pool when they won a lengthy shootout in the crossovers for the 5-8th places at the 2013 Worlds.

• After Barcelona 2018, there was a shift, with 13 out of the next 17 matches being won by Spain, though one of the four losses they had to swallow was perhaps even more bitter, in the Olympics semis in Tokyo.

• Spain have won their last six encounters, including the bronze medal match at the 2023 World Championships.

• Their very last battle was staged just a week ago in Trebinje where Spain beat the Serbs convincingly, 14-10 – with 10 goals coming from the super trio of Munarriz (4), Granados and Sanahuja (3 apiece).

• Fun fact: Their last two matches played at the European Championships both ended in a shootout. In 2018, it was 7-7 in regular time, and the Serbs converted all their penalties to land the gold medal (5-3). Two years later, in Budapest, they clashed in the quarter-final, where it finished 6-6 after 32 minutes, but this time the Spaniards won the shootout (4-3).

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Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics

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