La Furia Roja still in the flow?

Only top teams are still represented in the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Water Polo Championship in Hungary. In the group phase and also in the round of 16, there were close matches that were not necessarily expected, but the big surprises in the results were missing. So it comes to an expected quarter-final between Spain and Montenegro on Wednesday.

Maybe La Furia Roja was the best team in the preliminary round. With three convincing victories, the runners-up qualified directly for the quarter-finals.

On Wednesday, however, the Spain selection is clearly favoured against the Montenegrin Sharks. The team from the Balkans is also always good for anything, but at the World Cup you can see that it doesn’t fit in some places. Therefore, in this quarter-final between Spain and Montenegro, the prediction can only go to a clear victory for the Iberians.

Montenegro is the team that has probably slipped into this quarter-final the luckiest and has also found it relatively difficult against outsiders. We expect the Sharks’ journey to be over on Wednesday, at least as far as the race for the medals is concerned, and still lean quite heavily towards placing a tip on a Spanish victory between Spain and Montenegro.

Spain – Statistics & current form

At the moment, what is also on the agenda for some other teams is also true for the Spaniards. La Furia Roja is fielding a team in the World Cup and at the same time a team in the Mediterranean Games. The gold medal is possible in both competitions, but the stronger squad is of course competing at the World Cup to put on the World Cup crown for the third time after 1998 and 2001.

Spanish goal factory

Without question, these Spaniards have what it takes to win the gold medal in the end. If we include the Mediterranean Games in this assessment, La Furia Roja have won seven matches in a row recently, even if the landslide win against Canada was subsequently taken out of the equation. Spain also scored in a 28-2 win over South Africa. This means that David Martin Lozano’s team has scored the most goals at the World Cup.

Especially on the offensive, the Spanish team is turning up the heat and therefore we can imagine that the odds between Spain and Montenegro will also go up to more than 19.5 goals. Of course, we expect the majority of the goals to come from the Spaniards. That was also the case in the last group match in the rematch of the 2019 World Cup final against Italy.

It was a duel of equals for four quarters. After all, two teams met who both have ambitions to become world champions in Budapest. In the end, the Spaniards prevailed 14:12. Alvaro Granados Ortega was the best scorer for the Spaniards with three goals. Keeper Unai Aguirre was once again the guarantor for this success, defending 60 per cent of the throws.

Predicted line-up of Spain:
Aguirre, Lorrio – Munarriz Egana, Granados Ortega, Sanahuja, de Toro Dominguez, Larumbe Gonfaus, Famera, Cabanas Pegado, Tahull Compte, Perrone Rocha, Mallarach, Guell, Bustos Sanchez – Coach: Martin Lozano

Montenegro – Statistics & current form

Generally, the record of the Montenegrin Sharks in the last few games does not look bad at all, again taking the Mediterranean games into account. In the last six games, there was only one defeat. The question is always with what expectations one went into the matches beforehand and what came out in the end.

Too much room for improvement

It was not entirely surprising that they would lose to Hungary in the opening match of the World Cup. What was unexpected, however, was how difficult Vladimir Gojkovic’s team found it in the course of the tournament. In their second group match against the outsiders from Georgia, they only managed a very narrow 10:9 victory.

At least the Montenegrins showed their best side in the 20:5 win against Brazil, even if it has to be said that the South Americans finished the World Cup in last place. In the last 16, the Sharks had to play Japan in the pool and again they only managed a 10:9 win against another underdog. Anyone who has such a hard time against the Georgians and Japanese will hardly stand a chance against Spain.

The Sharks will therefore have to improve a lot on Wednesday if they want to flirt with a place in the semifinals. But we think that Vladimir Gojkovic’s team will bow out of the race for the medals with a defeat. Obviously, in the duel between Spain and Montenegro, there is no way around a prediction of a victory for the runner-up.

Predicted line-up of Montenegro:
Lazovic, Tesanovic – Mrsic, Vucurovic, Averka, Cuckovic, Popadic, Radovic, Djurdjic, Perkovic, Banicevic, Matkovic, Petkovic – Coach: Gojkovic

Spain – Montenegro Direct comparison / H2H Ranking

The development of the two teams from Spain and Montenegro has been somewhat contrary recently. While La Furia Roja is now one of the best water polo teams in the world, the Sharks have somewhat lost touch with the strongest teams. Yet both teams have been on a par over the last six years. There have been ten direct duels in this period.

After victories, the score has been 3:3 in recent years. Four games ended in a draw. The last two duels, however, went to the Spaniards. At last year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, the Iberians won 8:6 in the group phase. In the World League, the Spanish team won 15:10 in the match for third place in April this year.

Spain – Montenegro tip

Spain’s performances so far in this World Cup have been very impressive. For us, the Furia Roja has perhaps made the best impression of all 16 teams. Not only were they extremely goal-hungry against Canada and South Africa. After all, they also beat Italy, the reigning world champions, and that is one of the reasons why the World Cup title will only go through the Iberians.

The Montenegrins certainly have great qualities, but have shown them too little in the pool at the current World Cup. Especially the difficulties against the supposed underdogs from Georgia and Japan have made the problems of the Sharks clear.

We also think that many goals will be scored if the Spaniards continue to be as goal-hungry as they were in the preliminary round. More than 19.5 goals should be very likely. On balance, however, we have decided to play the betting odds on a handicap win (-4.5) for the runners-up in the World Cup between Spain and Montenegro.