Budapest, Hungary, July 27.— Croatia caused a major upset in ending the reign of Serbia as the best team in the world, equalising an amazing nine times and winning 12-11 to book a FINA World Championship gold-medal final clash with host nation Hungary.
With Serbia's incredible Andrija Prlainovic on fire with a spectacular six goals, the capacity 7000-strong Alfred Hajos Pool crowd had stayed behind after watching Hungary down Greece 7-5 in the first semifinal with Konstantinos Genidounias netting three for Greece.
Croatia-Serbia was in complete contrast to the earlier match and the goals were some of the greatest of the tournament. It was a clash of two giants and one wonders just how Hungary will match Croatia in Saturday's finale.
In the semifinal round 5-8, Montenegro managed to withstand Russian pressure, winning 9-8 in a rugged encounter where Russia equalised five times. Drasko Brguljan scored four goals for the winner. Italy defeated Australia 8-4 in a closer match than when they played in the group stages.
In classification matches in the morning session, Kazakhstan upset Brazil 9-5 for 11th place after Brazil won their first-day group match 6-2. Spain goes away with ninth place, defeating Japan 13-11 with Albert Espanol netting five. Italy had a repeat win over Australia — 8-4 — a far cry from the 13-5 margin in the final group phase when Italy was vying to avoid the second round. Italy led 6-4 at halftime.
Today’s schedule:
Match 39, 10.30, BRAZIL 5 KAZAKHSTAN 9
Classification 11-12
Match 40, 12:00, JAPAN 11 SPAIN 13
Classification 9-10
Match 41. 13:30, MONTENEGRO 9 RUSSIA 8
Round 5-8 Semifinal
Match 42. 15:00, AUSTRALIA 4 ITALY 8
Round 5-8 Semifinal
Match 43, 20:30, GREECE 5 HUNGARY 7
Round 1-4 Semifinal
Match 44, 22.00, SERBIA 11 CROATIA 12
Round 1-4 Semifinal
Saturday final-day schedule:
Match 45, 12:00, RUS v AUS (Classification 7-8)
Match 46, 13:30, MNE v ITA (Classification 5-6)
Match 47, 15:00 GRE v SRB (Classification 1-3)
Match 48. 20:30, HUN v CRO (Classification 1-2)