Mladost loses derby in penalty shootout, surprise at Kantrida
An exciting water polo Saturday in the 9th round of the Premier League had its climax in the last match of the day, the derby by the Sava river. The match was decided only by a penalty shootout.
Mladost ‘blew it’ against Novi Beograd
The Frogs had a great opportunity to break the unbeaten streak of Novi Beograd, which has lasted for 17 matches, or all their matches this season in all competitions. Mladost had a +3 lead with just six minutes remaining (9:6), but evidently it was not enough. After the visitors reduced the score to 9:7, Biljaka had a great chance with only five minutes left, but was stopped by Novi Beograd's goalkeeper, Glušac. In the following two attacks, Mladost made mistakes in passing the ball. First Harkov, and then Biljaka. The opponent continued to reduce the lead (9:8), and in the last minute, 48 seconds before the end, Martinović scored from the left wing with a player advantage, making it 9:9. A goal for the penalty shootout. It is also worth noting that Mladost already lost their first center Josip Vrlić in the last seconds of the first quarter (with substitution possibility). Nevertheless, Zagreb players managed well, played well even without him, took the lead from the second quarter and did not allow the opponent to turn the game around. After three quarters it was 8:6, at the beginning of the last it was 9:6...
In the penalty shootout, Mislav Vrlić, the seventh shooter for Mladost, hit the crossbar, and Martinović scored to secure the victory for Novi Beograd.
Primorje defeats Cup winner
The round's derby was played in Zagreb, but the biggest surprise occurred in Rijeka. There, Primorje EB defeated Jug Adriatic osiguranje in a clash between two somewhat similar teams. These are squads filled with talented young players. After all, these two clubs contributed half of our national team that won the European U19 Champion title in Burgas this summer.
In the preview of the Rijeka duel, young Karlo Babić (Primorje EB) mentioned they were preparing and ready to surprise Jug players. Keeping in mind the match at Kantrida, two rounds earlier, when Novi Beograd managed to 'snatch' the victory just 2 seconds before the end, there were reasons to believe those were not empty words. The events in the pool proved just that.
Except for Jug's lead at the beginning 2:0 and two equalizers (3:3 and 8:8), Rijeka led throughout the match. Often with a 3-4 goal advantage, which was ultimately how the Rijeka team won. Tin Brubnjak scored 6 goals, missing one penalty.
7 goals from Loren Fatović
Croatia's water polo player for 2024, Loren Fatović, demonstrated (once again) his qualities in Crnica.
Jadran defeated the very solid Solaris in Šibenik. Split's team convincingly won the first quarter (6:2), but Solaris was equal in the remaining parts of the match. In fact, Jadran would probably have faced much bigger problems, and it is questionable whether they would have taken any points from Krešimir's city if they did not have Loren Fatović on their team. Solaris equalized at the beginning of the third quarter (9:9), but by the end of it, Jadran was already leading 14:12, with 4 of those 5 visitor goals being scored by Fatović. Loren Fatović found the net 7 times against the very good goalkeeper Roko Pavić. The game-changer.
In the remaining matches of the 9th round, Crvena zvezda defeated Primorac 12:10, while Šabac convincingly beat Valis from Valjevo 16:9.
