Hungarian men's water polo team beat European champion Croats 12-10 at World Aquatics Championship

The Hungarian men's water polo team beat the Croats 12-10 at the World Aquatics Championship in Fukuoka, MTI reported. The team still has to play the Argentinians, who are not among the stronger teams in the sport on Friday, and if they manage to defeat them, they will qualify for the quarter-finals of the Championship as group leaders.

Nine of the Hungarian team scored goals during the game. Commenting on the match, team captain Zsolt Varga said, “We prepared extensively for the Croats, we spent the most time working on playing shorthanded and on total defence because, as expected, their centres were mostly near the two-metre. It's also important to have less players sent off when not in posession of the ball.”

He also said, "I have to congratulate the team because we controlled the game throughout, our opponents only came back in the last two or three attacks towards the end. We do need to build more of a routine in how to close a game like this".

Varga added that they will continue to work in the six days left until the quarter-finals, which includes Friday's group game against Argentina, but there will also be time to rest, as well as to practice with another team that has reached the final eight, either Spain or Italy.

Two days ago, the Hungarian team beat Japan 16-8.