Sandro Sukno scored two goals and Josip Pavic recorded 13 saves to power Croatia past Montenegro 7-5 and into the final of men’s waterpolo at the London Olympics.
Aleksandar Ivovic scored first for Montenegro, but it was all Croatia after that as they slotted home the next five goals to take a 5-1 lead at the half in a game that was as physical as expected between the Balkan rivals.
“Tough game,” Niksa Dobud of Croatia said with a grin as he licked blood off his right pinkie finger. “I’ve never felt so tired like now, but it’s nothing because we are in the final. We play again great defense, we were aggressive. Our offense was not so good, but when you are good in the back, you are so calm in the attack.”
With yesterday’s win, Croatia avenged their quarterfinal defeat to Montenegro four years ago in Beijing and advance to tomorrow’s final here for a shot at their first Olympic waterpolo title.
Theywill play 2011 world champions Italy, who beat Serbia 9-7 later yesterday in the other semi-final.
Since a disastrous showing at the 2012 European championship, where they finished ninth, Croatia have been on a roll, winning the FINA World League Finals last month and rolling through the competition so far in London undefeated.
“Very good performance, all the tournament, from the first game to this game,” coach Ratko Radic said.
The team’s defence, anchored by Pavic in goal, has been stellar, conceding just 36 goals in seven games. Croatia held the US to just two goals in their quarterfinal matchup, and it was stingy again against a talented Montenegro team in the semi-final.
“It’s much, much easier to be in the Croatian goal when your teammates play defense like this because they play extremely good, very, very well, fantastic, and that’s the key of our success,” said Pavic, who has a tournament-leading save percentage of 71 percent.
Montenegro, who finished fourth at the 2008 games, will play for bronze.
“We today didn’t play well, and Croatia played very well. Congratulations to them because today they were the better team,” Montenegro captain Nikola Janovic said. “This was one of the difficult matches in this tournament. We know they are very, good team, they are strong, they are tall, and we today, in the end, couldn’t do anything.”
Earlier yesterday, Spain beat the US after Felipe Perrone Rocha scored his third goal of the game with under a minute to play to seal the 8-7 win.
Spain advanced to the fifth-place game tomorrow against Hungary, who beat Australia 10-9, while the US, who won silver four years ago in Beijing, will play for seventh place.