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Hungary ties largest-ever win in history on Day 7 of the European Water Polo Championships
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Hungary’s 26-0 win is tying Greece’s largest win in history in the men’s Europeans, set in Barcelona 2018 against Turkey. It’s also tied third best scoring effort for a single match. Spain holds the record from 1991 with 28 goals – note that time games lasted for 4×7 minutes.
Highest single-game scores, men’s tournament
28 goals
Spain v Great Britain 28-6 (1991)
27
Greece v Turkey 27-1 (2018) – largest win by 26
26
Hungary v Malta 26-0 (2020) – largest win by 26
Croatia v Austria 26-2 (1995)
Romania v Denmark 26-9 (1991)
Moreover, Italy, Hungary and Serbia followed Croatia to the quarter-finals after convincing wins in the last round of the prelims. Hungary indeed needed a 20-goal victory to build a better goal-difference than Spain and its match ended up in a 26-0 rout of Malta, the first shutout since 2001, a new scoring record for this tournament and the hosts also tied the largest-ever win in the history of the Europeans.
Men’s preliminaries, Round 3
Group A: Slovakia v Croatia 4-16, Germany v Montenegro 3-10
Rankings: 1. Croatia 9, 2. Montenegro 6, 3. Germany 3, 4. Slovakia 0
Group B: Romania v Russia 11-10, Serbia v Netherlands 11-4
Rankings: 1. Serbia 9, 2. Russia 3, 3. Romania 3, 4. Netherlands 3 Three-way tie (goal-difference based on the results against each other: RUS +5, ROU 0, NED –5)
Group C: Turkey v Spain 7-24, Malta v Hungary 0-26
Rankings: 1. Hungary 7 (+40), 2. Spain (+33) 7, 3. Turkey 3, 4. Malta 0
Group D: France v Greece 10-12, Italy v Georgia 18-6
Rankings: 1. Italy 9, 2. Greece 6, 3. Georgia 3, 4. France 0
Fixtures for Monday
Eight-finals: Montenegro v Turkey (QF v Italy), Germany v Spain (QF v Serbia), Russia v Georgia (QF v Hungary), Romania v Greece (QF v Croatia) For places 13-16th: Slovakia v Malta, Netherlands v France
The scoring race between Spain and Hungary offered the biggest excitements on the last day of the prelims. It kicked off early as the Spaniards started the day with the game against Turkey. Though the opening period was surprisingly close (3-5), then they geared up and by the end of the third quarter they already managed to produce the same score-line Hungary achieved at the end of the game against the Turks (5-19). After the 8-goal rush in the third, Spain could add five more in the closing period, thus the bar was raised high as the Hungarians needed a 20-goal win to finish ahead of their group-rival.
However, the Spaniards told immediately after their game that the Hungarian shooting machine should produce enough goals to finish atop – and they saw the future. In the evening the Magyars left no chance for their rivals as they heavily guarded them at the back, so Malta’s first shot on target arrived with 2:06 to go in the second. By then the hosts completed the first half of the journey as they took a 10-0 lead, by halftime they were already 13-0 up.
With 1:07 to go in the third they had it at 20-0 and stopped at 26 much to the delight of the home crowd which filled the stands once more (the number of shots, 36-14, on target: 30-5, told the story). Gergo Zalanki netted 7 goals (from 7 shots), also a new individual scoring record in this event.