Six undefeated teams, Italy and Spain in quarterfinals at U16 Worlds

The Group Phase at the World U16 Men’s World Championships has ended this evening.

Six teams that finished the group stage with a perfect 4–0 record advanced to the quarterfinals, even though there were possible outcomes with an undefeated team finishing outside the Top 8.

The teams with four wins are Russia, which topped its group, Brazil (finished in 2^nd place), Croatia (3^rd place), Egypt (6th place), Serbia (7^th place), and the USA (8^th place). Besides the six unbeaten teams, Italy and Spain will continue battling for the medals, finishing in 4th and 5th place in the Group Phase, respectively.

There were some indications that the format of the knockout stage could be changed, but until the end there was no official information about the change. Therefore, the quarterfinals on Friday will be: Italy – Spain (16:00 CET), Brazil – Serbia (17:30), Croatia – Egypt (19:00),Russia – USA (20:35).

First of all, all the teams that reached the quarterfinals deserve praise. The players did their best to earn their place among the top eight. It is encouraging to see Brazil and Egypt alongside the traditional favorites. It will be great if these two teams, along with many other emerging nations, continue to improve, helping to broaden the group of medal contenders at the senior level. That would make the traditional powerhouses work much harder than before to reach the medals or even the knockout stage of major tournaments.

However, the competition format, the TPI point system, and the draw had an unusually big impact on the outcome.

The derby of the final day of the Group Stage was an encounter between Greece and Hungary. Greece claimed a convincing 12:8 victory, thanks largely to an outstanding 5:1 second quarter, Greece defeated two strong opponents during the tournament, having previously edged Spain 9:8. Despite those wins, however, the Greeks finished only 13th in the group-stage rankings. Their hopes of reaching the quarterfinals were virtually extinguished on the opening day after a 4:7 defeat to Russia, a result that earned them only 30 TPI points. By finishing first in the group, Russia demonstrated that it has a strong squad whose quality is completely out of proportion with its position near the bottom of the World Aquatics Rankings, as we have already written about.

Hungary dropped out of the top eight after losing to Greece. The Hungarians finished 11th, behind both the Turks, whom they defeated 12:8, and Malta.

On the final day, Serbia and the United States secured their quarterfinal spots. Serbia collected  102.6 TPI points with a dominant 20:7 victory over Canada, while the United States defeated Australia 15:6 and earned 101.4 points.

Brazil confirmed its spot among the top 8 with a 12:4 win over New Zealand, which had also been unbeaten before Day 4. As for the other teams with perfect records, Russia defeated Israel 12:3. Croatia beat the Netherlands 15:7, and Egypt ran over Zimbabwe 25:1.

Nine teams finished the group stage with three wins and one defeat. Two of those nine teams advanced to the quarterfinals—Spain and Italy. Both sides recorded very convincing victories over Asian opponents on the final day of the group stage. Although China and Singapore are traditionally considered underdogs against European teams in water polo, they are highly ranked in the World Aquatics Rankings. Therefore, those victories were very valuable in the TPI system. Italy crushed China 24:4 to earn 106.2 TPI points, while Spain collected 105 for a 21:7 victory over Singapore.

However, both Italy and Spain also received a significant number of TPI points in defeat. Italy earned 72.2 points while losing 10:12 to Montenegro, while Spain received 69.8 points for its narrow 8:9 loss to Greece.

World U16 Championships, Zagreb, Day4

Kazakhstan – Turkiye 8:15 (0:2, 1:4, 6:4, 1:5)

Peru – Malaysia 14:6 (3:3, 4:1, 5:1, 2:1)

Germany – Montenegro 10:11 (4:3, 2:4, 1:3, 3:1)

Czech Republic – Portugal 6:16 (1:3, 1:3, 1:6, 3:4)

Brazil – New Zealand 12:4 (4:1, 4:1, 3:1, 1:1)

Ukraine – Puerto Rico 19:4 (3:0, 5:1, 4:1, 7:2)

Hungary – Greece 8:12 (3:2, 1:5, 1:1, 3:4)

Egypt – Zimbabwe 25:1 (8:0, 4:0, 7:1, 6:0)

Italy – China 24:4 (6:1, 6:1, 7:0, 5:2)

South Africa – Malta 5:9 (1:3, 2:2, 0:2, 2:2)

Australia – USA 6:15 (1:6, 1:2, 2:5, 2:2)

Mexico – Romania 5:11 (1:0, 0:4, 2:4, 2:3)

Canada – Serbia 7:20 (1:6, 3:4, 3:5, 0:5)

Slovenia – Poland 7:8 (2:1, 2:2, 1:2, 2:3)

Netherlands – Croatia 7:15 (3:4, 1:4, 2:3, 1:4)

Russia – Israel 12:3 (6:0, 0:2, 3:0, 3:1)

Spain – Singapore 21:7 (7:0, 4:3, 6:1, 4:3)

Georgia – Uruguay 21:5 (8:1, 3:1, 6:1, 4:2)

1. Russia (4 –0 ) 94,5 average of TPI points
2. Brazil (4 – 0) 91,5
3. Croatia (4 – 0) 91,2
4. Italy (3 – 1) 88,7
5. Spain (3 – 1) 88,1
6. Egypt (4 – 0) 87,8
7. Serbia (4 – 0) 86,3 (goal difference + 52)
8. USA (4 – 0) 86,3 (g.d. +48)
9. Turkiye (3 – 1) 85,3
10. Malta (3 – 1) 84,1
11. Hungary (3 – 1) 83,8
12. Romania (3 – 1) 79,9
13. Greece (3 – 1) 79,2
14. Germany (2 – 2) 77,8
15. New Zealand (3 – 1) 77,7
16. Australia (2 – 2) 74,5
17. Singapore (2 -2) 73,3
18. Georgia (2 – 2) 73,0
19. Montenegro (3 – 1) 74,3
20. Netherlands (2 – 2) 71,8
21. Poland (2 – 2) 71,1
22. Kazakhstan (2 – 2) 64,8
23. Canada (1 – 3) 62,8
24. Peru (1 – 3) 62,5
25. Ukraine (1 – 3) 59,9
26. Slovenia (1 – 3) 57,5
27. Portugal (1 – 3) 54
28. South Africa (0 – 4) 53,8
29. Israel (1 – 3) 51,3
30. China (0 – 4) 51,1
31. Zimbabwe (0 – 4) 50,6
32. Czech Republic (1 – 3) 49,4
33. Mexico (0 – 4) 48,1
34. Puerto Rico (0 – 4) 46,9
35. Malaysia (0 – 4) 42,7
36. Uruguay (0 – 4) 38,5

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