Spain made an opening statement when it forced a 6-6 draw with the highly fancied Serbia on the second day of the FINA World Men’s Junior Water Polo Championships at the Swimming Complex Podolí, in Prague on Sunday.

Spain sat out day one and took on Serbia who rattled the host nation, Czech Republic, 28-0 on Saturday.

The Group B match was level at every quarter — 1-1, 2-2, 2-2 and 1-1 — even though Serbia took a two-goal lead at 5-3 early in the third period. Spain scored the opening goal of the match and Serbia went 2-1 and 3-2 ahead with Spain levelling each time.

Those consecutive goals at the top of the third gave Serbia the advantage for some time before Spain nullified it with a score on extra-man attack and a second when each side had a man ejected. A defended penalty shot from Spanish goalkeeper Unai Aguirre denied Serbia the lead heading into the final period. He was justifiably named player of the match. Stefan Brankovic scored from the top at 6:22 and Serbia defended that lead for nearly six minutes before Roberto Valera converted extra-man attack for 6-6 at 0:23.

Marko Radulovic and Nemanja Stanojevic scored twice each for Serbia with Unai Biel scoring Spain’s double.

United States of America beat Czech Republic 18-2 in the first match of the day, giving it a perfect 2-0 record for four points in Group B while Serbia now has three and Spain one.

The only Group C match of the day was between Brazil and Hungary who both had a rest day on day one. Hungary finished on top 22-10, scoring six goals in three of the periods as Brazil managed to get on the board 10 times. Brothers Vince and Vendel Vigvari scored six and four goals respectively while Akos Konarik netted five from five. Mate Aranyi, who with Vince Vigvari are the only survivors from Kuwait 2019, scored three of his own.

In the only Group D encounter, reigning champion Greece was sharp against Kazakhstan, winning 26-2, swimming through the quarters 6-0, 8-1, 7-0 and 5-1.Topping the scoring for Greece was Efstathios Kalogeropoulos with eight goals from just nine attempts. The Greek combinations, confidence and counter-attacking proved too much for Kazakhstan.

There are tougher matches ahead for Greece, although Monday’s encounter with South Africa will hardly test the 2017 and 2019 champion team.

The other thrilling match of the day came in the second Group A clash with Croatia coming from 10-7 behind at the final break to beat Italy 13-12.

In a period of a minute and a half, Croatia bridged the three-quarter-time deficit and Italy regained the lead at 11-10 with two defenders less in front. Croatia levelled on extra-man attack at 4:00 and then used a timeout to score a sneak shot from deep right for the 12-11 advantage from four-goal hero Duje Akrap.

Italian captain Francesco Forreno took a six-metre foul and blasted in for 12-12 — and his sixth goal from 11 attempts — at 0:54, only for Marco Zuvela to plant one in from the top on extra for what was the winning goal at 0:25. Italy had two chances to score in the dying seconds with both attempts blocked by the dogged defence.

In the earlier Group A encounter, Argentina bounced back from a first-day loss to Croatia by downing Uzbekistan 30-7 thanks to eight goals to Tizziano Conti.

Monday’s choice matches would probably be Russia versus Argentina and United States of America against Spain.

Sunday results:

Group A: Argentina 30 Uzbekistan 7 (7-1, 5-1, 10-2, 8-3), Italy 12 Croatia 13 (2-3, 3-2, 5-2, 2-6). Progress points: Croatia 4, Russia 2, Argentina 2, Italy 0, Uzbekistan 0.

Group B: Czech Republic 2 USA 18 (0-5, 1-5, 0-5, 1-3), Spain 6 Serbia 6 (1-1, 2-2, 2-2, 1-1). Progress points: USA 4, Serbia 3, Spain 1, Slovakia 0, Czech Republic 0.

Group C: Brazil 10 Hungary 22 (1-6, 1-4, 4-6, 4-6). Progress points: Hungary 2, Germany 2, Egypt 0 Brazil 0.

Group D: Greece 26 Kazakhstan 2 (6-0, 8-1, 7-0, 5-1). Progress points: Greece 2, Montenegro 2, South Africa 0, Kazakhstan 0.