Budapest, Hungary, July 24.— Monika Eggens fired five goals to help Canada knock out host nation Hungary in sensational women's water polo quarter-final action at Margaret Island tonight.

Canada won the first evening FINA World Championship match 6-4 and became the second team to eliminate a group winner in three matches. Eggens was the spur and the incredible Canadian defence sent shivers through Hungary who time and again second-guessed their finishing ability in front of a capacity, expectant crowd. Shots were weak, ill directed and not forthcoming at the crucial moments. Even when just two behind and in with a statistical chance of forcing a penalty shootout, Hungary elected not to challenge Canadian goalkeeping star Jessica Gaudreault.

In the second quarter-final of the night, Spain forced a penalty shootout in a see-saw match, finishing regulation time 10-10 and then winning the shootout 4-2 over group winner Greece for an incredible 14-12 success. Beatriz Ortiz and Judith Forca were the stars for Spain, Forca equalising five seconds from full time.

Earlier, Russia upset Rio Olympic silver medallist Italy in the opening quarter-final match at the Alfred Hajos Pool.

Russia raced to a 4-0 lead, went 7-5 down in the third quarter, then 9-7 up thanks to two fourth-quarter Evgeniya Ivanova strikes before winning 9-8 as the rain hammered down. Goalkeeper Anna Karnaukh and Italian Giulio Emmolo were best in pool.

Reigning champion United States of America held out Australia 7-5 for the second semifinal berth with Aussie Stinger Keesja Gofers stepping up with four goals, including two in the fourth period, which Australia won 4-2. Amazingly, the first goal did not come until four and a half minutes into the second quarter.

Russia and USA will clash in the first semifinal on Wednesday night and Canada will face Spain.

The poor showing of the group winners — three losing — calls into question the benefits or not of having a day off, meaning players are without competition for up to four days.

In the round 9-12 semifinals, Netherlands, a shock loser to Russia on Saturday, crushed New Zealand 19-4 after leading 11-2 at halftime. China turned a 6-4 halftime lead into a 13-5 success over France.

Classification matches opened the day's programme. Kazakhstan broke an eight-minute deadlock to beat South Africa 6-4 for 15th place with the final goal coming from 16m on the final buzzer by captain Assem Mussarova. Then Japan was at one stage four ahead of Brazil before finishing 11-9 and taking 13th ranking.

Today’s Match Schedule:

Match 31. 09:30, SOUTH AFRICA 4 KAZAKHSTAN 6 (Classification 15-16)

Match 32, 10.50, BRAZIL 9 JAPAN 11 (Classification 13-14)

Match 33, 12:10, NEW ZEALAND 4 NETHERLANDS 19 (Round 9-12 Semifinal)

Match 34. 13:30, CHINA 13 FRANCE 5 (Round 9-12 Semifinal)

Match 35. 14:50, ITALY 8 RUSSIA 9 (Round 1-8 Quarter-final)

Match 36, 16:10, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 7 AUSTRALIA 5 (Round 1-8 Quarter-final)

Match 37, 20.30, HUNGARY 4 CANADA 6 (Round 1-8 Quarter-final)

Match 38. 22:00, GREECE 12 SPAIN 14 in penalty shootout (FT: 10-10) (Round 1-8 Quarter-final)

Wednesday Schedule:

Match 39, 10:30, NZL v FRA (Classification 11-12)

Match 40, 12:00, NED v CHN (Classification 9-10)

Match 41, 13:30, ITA v AUS (Classification 5-8 semifinal)

Match 42, 15:0,0 HUN v GRE (Classification 5-8 semifinal)

Match 43, 20.35, RUS v USA (Classification 1-4 semifinal)

Match 44. 22:00, CAN v ESP (Classification 1-4 semifinal)