Montenegro took out Group B with a come-from-behind 16-8 victory over winless Japan. Stefan Vidovic scored four goals for the victor. In the final match of group play, Italy headed off France 14-7 to secure the top spot heading into Tuesday's quarterfinals, which will see France play USA (14:45); Greece play Georgia (16:40); Italy against Japan (18:15) and Kazakhstan playing Montenegro (20:00).
Montenegro had to come from 5-3 down in the first quarter to take the halftime lead 8-6 and swim away with the match 16-8 and the Group B title with three victories. Japan finishes fourth with three losses. The fury of Japan’s shooting shows in the statistics where it took 10 more shots than Montenegro and, sadly, giving up three penalty fouls.
A nine-goal opening quarter favoured Japan by one and Montenegro only held the lead at 2-1. Japan went to 5-3 when Yusuke Inaba scored his second goal, on counter-attack. This was a far better Japan from the opening two matches where it failed to impress. Montenegro was thereabouts while Japan was zipping through the defence and generally running amok.
The second period was just as high energy, although Japan’s activity failed to reap any real benefits. One goal — a third for Inaba — was the best it could achieve as Petar Tesanovic displayed all his skills in the Montenegrin goal during the first half. Japan too often shot from outside while its few lightning cross passes failed to find the mark. Inaba’s goal gave Japan its fourth lead. Montenegro drilled three straight, levelling for the fifth time and going ahead by two at the long break. Aleksa Ukropina converted his second penalty while Stefan Vidovic drove forward to lift Montenegro to the lead for the second time. Miodrag Matkovic scored from deep right on extra at 1:49 for the double advantage.
“It was a very tough and exhausting game. The team of Japan has very unusual tactics and style of play. We didn’t start well but we got better as the game went on. We played the tactics that we agreed beforehand. Our next game, I hope it is easy as we need the rest going into the finals.”
The wind was getting up and the heat was lowering, although still at a blistering 36C. Montenegro sent in three more for 11-6 and when Inaba grabbed his fourth at 3:25, it ended a 10-minute drought. Japan was still swimming at multiple tangents; however, Montenegro had the speedsters covered and good defence, with some inaccurate Japanese shooting, enabled the Europeans to progress to 13-7 by the buzzer. Vidovic and Ukropina picked up their third goals with the latter shooting from downtown to beat the buzzer.
With Slaven Kandic (MNE) playing the second half in goal, he had the measure of the Japanese outside shots.
Three more Montenegrin goals — with Vidovic netting his fourth — powered the score to 15-7 by 5:22 and the only other goal of the quarter came through captain Keigo Okawa on counter at 3:14.
It was a tiring match for both teams and something Montenegro would have hoped to evade ahead of the cutthroat finals encounters.
Full match statistics — http://results.microplustiming.com/TBILISI2021/index_web.php
Italy joined Montenegro as a group winner, claiming Group B with a thrilling 14-7 margin over France. Italy has three wins and France finishes third in the group.
“From tomorrow we start the World League. It will be an important game against Japan, as they increase from game to game. Today it was important for the concentration. This was a training game and I was happy with the way we played.”
To France’s credit, it was a fine performance against the world champion, especially levelling the second quarter 4-4. Goals were hard to buy from that point.
Italy made it look easy in the first quarter with Gonzalo Echinique, the man of the match, scoring two action goals, including the first from two metres. It could have been 5-1 if Francesco Di Fulvio had not had the ball slip out of his hand when taking a penalty shot.
The second quarter was even with France scoring twice to trail 5-3 and then dragging it back to 6-5 before Italian captain Pietro Figlioli converted extra and Jacopo Alesiani countered for an 8-5 halftime advantage. Alexandre Bouet scored twice for France — both on extra-man attack.
“I think we played a very good game.”
France found it difficult to break through in the third period with Stefano Luongo on extra and Alessandro Velotto receiving a cross pass on counter to bring up double figures at 6:05. The game meandered through to 0:35 when Figlioli was fouled from the match and France took a timeout. No shot was taken on the attack and France’s dearth of goals continued for more than 10 minutes.
With Luongo driving, catching and shooting successfully for 12-5 early in the fourth, it looked like Italy would run away with the match. However, dour defence from both sides meant no goals for nearly four minutes. The impasse was broken by Romain Marion Vernoux with a lob from very deep right. The referee took some time to award it and France was thankful for its first goal in 15 minutes. Another came Bouet’s way, for his third, inside the final two minutes. The 3-2 final quarter gave Italy the 14-7 victory and group supremacy.
“We had for our opposition the world champion. It is normally a very difficult game and we gave our best, which is not easy. They are very prepared. This was a very good lesson for us tonight.”
Full match statistics — http://results.microplustiming.com/TBILISI2021/index_web.php