It was fair and it was done. Η National men's water polo team impresses in Olympic tournament of Tokyo and will claim a medal. After the victory over Hungary in the opening round, the draw with world champions Italy, Greece will claim a medal in Tokyo.
The «blue and white» of the Thodoris Vlachos, with an exemplary defense subdued the Montenegro and qualified for the last four of the tournament for the first time since 2004. The national team will face the winner of Hungary vs Croatia in the semi-final on Friday 6 August.
Both teams entered the game with their defense as their first concern. It is characteristic that both failed to score a goal. It wasn't until about two and a half minutes before the end of the first eight minutes that Yenedounias opened the scoring with the 1-0 score remaining until the end of the period.
Greece equalized (1-1) with a goal by Brgoulian at the beginning of the second eighth period. The players of Thodoris Vlachos did not panic. With a goal by captain Giannis Fountoulis from eight meters, Greece took a 2-1 lead and seemed to have the upper hand again.
The Montenegrins, on the other hand, could not find the way to the net. Good Greek blocks and the impressive Zerdevas (in another game) did not allow Gojkovic's team to score for the rest of the eight minutes. Greece played a nice game to make it 3-1 with Giouvetsis, a score that ended the second eight minutes.
Greece continued to be impressive in the third eight minutes. With a penalty by Yenedounias, the team of Thodoris Vlachos led 4-1 while a goal by the same player brought the «blue and white» team to 5-1, controlling the game completely.
With a second well-taken penalty by Konstantinos Yenedounias, Greece made it 6-1 with the Montenegrins scoring through Ivovic after almost 15 minutes. The third eight minutes ended with the score at 6-2 and Greece continuing its exemplary defense.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter the Montenegrins closed the gap with Tsouchkovic but Greece came back to 7-3 with Papanastasiou. Argyropoulos scored to make it 8-3, a goal that was heavily celebrated as it basically locked the game for the national team.
GREECE - BLACK MOUNTAIN 10-4
Eight minutes: 1-0, 2-1, 3-1, 4-2
Greece (Vlachos): Zerdevas, Yenedounias 5, Skubakis, Kapotsis 1, Fountoulis 1, Papanastasiou, Dervisis, Argyropoulos 1, Murikis, Columbus, Giouvetsis 1, Vlachopoulos.
Montenegro (Gojkovic): Candic, Brgulian 1, Perkovic, Petkovic, Chushkovic 1, Popadic, Vidovic, Ukropina, Ivovic 2, Spić, Matkovic, Banisevic.
