Serbia and Croatia’s men’s water polo teams have a lot of recent experience at the top of podiums. Serbia is the two-time defending Olympic gold medalists. Croatia is the defending world champion.
Recent success sets up what could be a classic final in the Paris men’s water polo tournament on Sunday.
Serbia reached the finals with a 10-6 win over the U.S. on Friday. Team USA did a good job of containing Paris’ top goal scorer Dusan Mandic, who didn’t have a goal in the semifinals, but other players stepped up. Nikola Dedovic had four goals and Nikola Jaksic had three. Between the two, they missed just two shots.
“Today was the night of the Nikolas. Hopefully it gets even better in two days,” Nikola Jaksic said.
Serbia has scored 80 goals in Paris, but has also allowed 80, the most of any team in the medal matches. Goalie Radoslav Filipovic has conceded 73 goals, the most of any keeper in Paris.
Serbia is playing for its third straight Olympic gold medal. It is guaranteed a fifth straight Olympic medal.
Even though the Serbians came in as defending gold medalists, they were not favorite in Paris. They finished sixth at the most recent world championships, and went just 2-3 in pool play at the beginning of the Paris Games, only narrowly making it into the knockout round.
Despite recent losses, Jaksic said he can see his team improving every game.
“I am so proud of my teammates after everything we’ve been through in the past three years,” Jaksic said. “But we have one more game left. We forget this game tonight. We didn’t come here to be second, we came here to win it… We still haven’t done what we came for, which is to win it, not defend it, because this is a new team. We want to win the gold medal game – it doesn’t matter who it is against.
“We’re definitely going to give everything we have, even more than in any previous game we’ve had during this tournament.”
Serbia’s Nemanja Ubovic said he expects his team’s best is yet to come.
“We are raising our game, our performances, and I think the best one is going to come in the last one,” he said.
The Croatians reached the finals following a 9-8 win over Hungary in the semifinals on Friday. In the win, goalie Marko Bijac had 10 saves. Hungary is allowing just over 10 goals per game in Paris.
“He’s the best goalkeeper in the world, there’s no question about that,” Croatia’s Jerko Marinic Kragic said of Bijac. “I’m sure he will stay in this level. He’s the best. Having him goal for us is a dream come true.”
Croatia finished fifth at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. They came to Paris after winning silver at the European championships in January and gold at the world championships in February.
Croatian attacker Loren Fatovic called 2024 the “perfect year” for his team.
“But we don’t want to stop here, we want to win this one last game and make it incredible,” Fatovic added.
Marinic called Serbia an excellent team.
“Everybody has seen how good they are,” he added. “We were fourth in the group, they were fourth also, so a lot of people didn’t give us a chance to be in the final. But we’ve both shown how good our nations are in water polo.”
Saturday’s gold medal game will begin at 8 a.m. ET.
“This year is more than special for us to play three finals in one year. I don’t think it will ever happen again for anyone,” Marinic said. “We have energy, a great team. We have character. We have that mental strength to play all of these games, even now, in the Olympic Games after this harder path we chose… We’ve shown that the mental strength is very important and hopefully we’ll finish this Olympic Games in the best way possible.”
Sunday’s schedule
The final day of the Paris Olympic men’s water polo tournament will kick off on Sunday at 3 a.m. ET with the fifth place game between Greece and Spain.
In the bronze medal game, the U.S. will take on Hungary at 4:35 a.m. The game will air on USA Network and can be streamed on NBCOlympics.com.
The gold medal game will begin at 8 a.m. ET. It will air on USA Network and can be streamed on NBCOlympics.com.
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