Spain won bronze at the World Water Polo Championships | Kinds of sports

Spain beat France in the consolation final of the World Water Polo Championships in Doha (14-10). The bronze medal is the team’s eighth medal since 2018 and the tenth for the Spanish delegation at the championship in Qatar. David Martin, coach of the national team, noted that the “last game” of the competition is always the most important and Spain did their best against an opponent who had improved significantly recently, just since learning that it was going to organize the Games in the summer of 2024. And this World Cup made a breakthrough. They surprised world champion Hungary in the quarter-finals and beat Croatia in the semi-finals on penalties. Spain had been warned and left no surprise.

Spain found it difficult to get into the fight, but once they did, they completely dominated the match. The match made no progress for the first three minutes due to persistent errors in accuracy and marking by the goalkeepers, especially Unai Aguirre. The defense of David Martin’s team was at a high level, but the attack was very dense. Bernat Sanahuja opened the can, although Spain took more than three minutes. Bjorch drew with a 1-1 advantage and from then on a better version of the Spaniards was seen. Alberto Munarriz made the score 2:1 with a great strike; The Navarrese served De Toro with a score of 3:1. A penalty converted by Felipe Perrone after a very well-coordinated counter-attack made the score 4-1. But the French responded in the second quarter. Bue took advantage of the game in superiority (4-2), Alvaro Granados missed a penalty (5-2), Vanpeperstraete’s shot made the score 5-3, and Famera did not disappoint in superiority (6-3).

In the second quarter, Perrone stood out above everyone else. The Spanish captain directed the ball and scored. He ordered and gave the necessary pause and acceleration of the match to bring the bronze closer to his team. At the end of a counter-attack he made it 7-3, and although Zivkovic scored (7-4), two further goals made it 9-4. Perrone and Sanahuja, with separate strikes, further alienated the Spanish team from the scoreboard, which had already done a fair amount of work by the break. The 10-4 scoreline was a miracle of precision and determination, from Unai Aguirre’s counter-attacking pass to Alvaro Granados to the determination of the goalscorer, who deceived Fontani three or four times to score a fantastic goal. He was not the only one, because with the score 10-5 Granados played another high-class counterattack (11-5). The last quarter passed with a score of 11-6, and in the final exchange the French scored, but did not cause any concern (14-10).

Spain came away with yet another medal from this World Championships. Since 2018, the team has not left the podium. Eight medals: 2 gold (world and European), three silver (1 world, 2 European) and 3 bronze (2 world and one European). This legendary team is missing a medal, the most coveted one, the Olympic one.

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