The first goal of the
championship took a long time coming with Christodoulos Kolomvos gaining
the honour on extra-man advantage at 5:04 in the second quarter. It was
a case of pressure defence by both teams.

The second period was all
Greece, who mastered the extra-man attack, scoring three goals as the
bewildered Montengrins looked on. To be kept scoreless for the entire
first half is unthinkable for such a proud water polo nation.

The
third period brought some respite for Montenegro with Ivovic converting a
penalty drawn by centre forward Filip Klikovak. That was after Greece
had increased the score to 4-0 with a fourth extra-man strike.

More
heartache was to continue for Montenegro when Emmanouil Mylonakis gained
his second goal just after the extra-man period had expired for 5-1 at
the final break. He struck again at the top of the fourth, also on extra, for 6-1.

Ivovic
sent in a skinny shot, which creased the right upright from the
top-right position when heavily guarded for 6-2 at 4:30. Captain Nicola
Janovic sparked a mini revival with a score on extra just inside the
final minute, followed by Ivovic in a strange goal in which players were
stretched the length of the pitch. The ball was fired up field to
Ivovic who hopefully shot from well out and to the right side and scored
at 0:22 to reduce the losing margin to 6-4.

Montenegro pressed a lot
but Greece zoned more and its defence was plainly superb and a credit
to its preparation. Greece is back in the top echelon of world water
polo.

Ironically, it was the first time these two teams have faced off at the FINA World Championships.Antonio

Match 1: 09:30, Group A, MONTENEGRO 4 GREECE 6
Quarters: 0-0, 0-3, 1-2, 3-1
Referees: Adrian Alexandrescu (ROU), Sergy Naumov (RUS).
Extra Man: MNE: 1/6. GRE: 3/6
Pens: MNE: 1/1.

Teams:
MONTENEGRO: Zdravko Radic, Drasko Brguljan, Vjekoslav Paskovic, Antonio Petrovic, Darko Brguljan, Ugo Crousillat, Mladan Janovic, Nikola Janovic (1), Aleksandar Ivovic (3), Sasa Misic, Filip Klikovic, Predrag Jokic, Milos Scepanovic. Head Coach: Ranko Perovic.
GREECE: Konstantinos Tsalkanis, Emmanouill Mylonakis (3), Konstantinos Gouvis, Konstantinos Genidounios, Ioannis Fountoulis (1), Kyriakos Pontikeas, Christos Afroudakis, Evangelos Delakas (1), Konstantinos Mourikis, Christodoulos Kolomvos (1), Alexandros Gounas, Angelos Vlachopoulos, Konstantinos Galanidis. Head Coach: Athanasios Kechagias.

FLASH QUOTES:

Petrovic (MNE)
“Our biggest problem was in the attack. There was a lot of pressure for this first game and our start was bad. But we cannot let this get to us as we aim to win a medal at this competition. We hope to do much better in the next game.”
Milos Scepanovic (MNE)
“I´m disappointed with the result. We are waiting for the other matches. We didn´t play very well; we especially had problems with the attack.”
Angelos Vlachopoulos (GRE)
“This is the result of a summer of hard work. We have played against Montenegro a lot of times.”
Ioannis Fountoulis (GRE)
“We believe we can win every match. We are at the same level as any other team.”