After an amazing tournament, the Netherlands defeated Greece 6 – 4 to claim their 5th European Water Polo championship title after 1985, 1987, 1989, 1993. After two consecutive finals lost in 2014 and 2016, the Dutch players really wanted to take this one home and not be beaten a third time in a row. Greece fight well but the “Orange” organization controlled the game and was just too good to be defeated this day.
Netherlands 6 – 4 Greece
Score by quarters: 2–1, 2–2, 1–0, 1–1
Piscines Bernat Picornell – Barcelona, Spain
The Netherlands overtake Greece with an amazing defense
The defense was the key of the game and at this game, the “Orange” were the best of the tournament. They show it during the final, Greece had a hard time to find a way to score during the game. With this defense and players like Sabrina van der Sloot and Maud Megens, the Netherlands had all keys to defeat Greece.
In the first quarter, the Dutch players took the lead 2-1 over Greece. The Greeks didn’t want to give up that easily and during the second quarter, they were able to score 2 goals even though their defense didn’t allow them to tie the game at halftime. After the break, the Netherlands really lock their defense and Greeks were not able to find the net during this quarter (1-0). The last quarter allows the Dutch to keep their 2 goals margin until the last second for a victory 6-4. After a very good competition, especially when they beat Spain in Semifinal Greece can be proud. They are is going home with the silver medal like 2010 and 2012.
Spain beat Hungary to win the bronze medal after the loss against Greece
Spain never let the change for Hungary to be in the game. After the first quarter, Spain was already leading 1-5. After the unexpected loss against Greece, the Spanish team wanted to show their superiority in order to take the bronze medal. The Spanish players control the rest of the game to win 12-6. Bea Ortiz shows her incredible skills once again in this game with 6 goals. She ends up with the top scorer award with a total of 25 goals in the tournament.
After finishing third in the women’s competition, Spain finished second in the men’s competition. It is an incredible result for the country to be in the top 3 in both rankings even though the expectation were higher for the women’s Spanish team. As a reminder, in 2016, Spain finished 5th in the men’s competition and 4th in the women’s competition.
The 33rd European Championships took place in Barcelona from July 14 to July 28. 16 teams were competing for the gold medal. You can scroll down this article and check out the full ranking of the competition below.
The next competition will be held in two years (2020) in Budapest, Hungary.
Final positions and results
2018 Women’s European Water Polo Championship
1. Netherlands
2. Greece
3. Spain
4. Hungary 
5. Russia
6. Italy
7. France
8. Germany
9. Serbia
10. Israel
11. Croatia
12. Turkey
FINAL
Sunday, July 27, 2018
Netherlands 6 – 4 Greece (2–1, 2–2, 1–0, 1–1)
3rd PLACE GAME
Sunday, July 27, 2018
Hungary 6 – 12 Spain (1–5, 2–1, 0–4, 3–2)
SEMI-FINALS
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Hungary 8 – 7 Netherlands (2–1, 3–3, 2–1, 1–2)
Greece 11 – 9 Spain (1–1, 4–1, 4–4, 2–3)
QUARTERFINALS
Wednesday, July 23, 2018
Netherlands 22 – 2 Germany (6–0, 8–0, 3–1, 5–1)
Italy 9 – 10 Hungary (3–1, 1–4, 4–1, 1–4)
Greece 11 – 10 Russia (0–1, 2–0, 2–2, 2–3 ; PSO: 5–4)
France 5 – 14 Spain (2–2, 0–5, 2–3, 1–4)
European Championship award
Best player
Sabrina van der Sloot (NLD)
Top Scorer (25)
Bea Ortiz (ESP)
Best goalkeeper
Laura Aarts (NLD)
Laura Arts saves 72% (64/89) of the shots and help her team throughout the competition to have a great defense and maintain opponents under 7 goals in each game. At the end of the tournament, she receives the best goalkeeper award. What an amazing competition for Dutch goalkeeper. The Netherlands never lost in the tournament with 6 wins and one draw (against Italy).
