The men’s water polo team emulated the women’s team and also won bronze at this World Cup in Doha by defeating France 14-10 in the consolation final. It is the tenth medal of the Spanish delegation in this World Cup, after the four obtained in artistic swimming, open water, diving, two in swimming and these two in water polo.
David Martín’s team won the team’s eighth medal since 2018. Martín says that “the last game” of a competition is always the most important and Spain went all out, against an opponent that has improved a lot in recent times, right since he found out that he was going to organize the Games in the summer of ’24. And this World Cup has taken the leap. They surprised Hungary, the world champion, in the quarterfinals and took Croatia in the semifinals to penalties. Spain was warned and did not leave even an inch to the surprise
It was difficult for Spain to get into action, but as soon as they did, they completely dominated the match. The match did not move in the first three minutes, with continuous errors in precision and prominence by the goalkeepers, especially by Unai Aguirre. The defense of David Martín’s team was at a high level, but the attack was very thick. Bernat Sanahuja was the one who opened the can, although Spain had taken more than three minutes.
Bjorch tied, in an action in superiority (1-1), and from then on the best version of the Spanish was seen. Alberto Munárriz, with a great shot, made it 2-1; The Navarrese served 3-1 to De Toro. A penalty converted by Felipe Perrone, after a very well-knit counter, made it 4-1. But the French reacted in the second quarter. Bouet took advantage of a play in superiority (4-2), Álvaro Granados did not fail from the penalty spot (5-2), a missile from Vanpeperstraete made it 5-3 and Famera did not fail in a superiority (6-3).
In the second quarter, Perrone stood out above everyone. The Spanish captain directed and scored. He ordered and gave the necessary pause and acceleration to the match to put the bronze very close to his team. He made it 7-3 at the end of a counterattack and, although Zivkovic scored (7-4), two new goals made it 9-4. Perrone and Sanahuja, with separate shots, further distanced a Spanish team on the scoreboard that, at half-time, had already had a good part of the work done.
The 10-4 score was a marvel of precision and resolution: from the counterattack pass from Unai Aguirre to Álvaro Granados to the resolution of the scorer, who faked Fontani three or four times to score a fantasy goal. He was not the only one, because with 10-5, Granados starred in another high-class counterattack finish (11-5). The last quarter was 11-6 and in the final exchange, the French scored, but never caused concern (14-10).
Spain came out with another medal from this World Cup. Since 2018, the team has not been off the podium. Eight medals: 2 golds (World and European), three silvers (1 World, 2 European) and 3 bronzes (2 World and one in the European). This legendary team is missing a medal, the most desired, the Olympic one.
