With wins in the semifinals on Friday, Serbia and Croatia will meet in the gold medal match of the Paris men's water polo tournament. Serbia defeated the U.S. early in the day, and Croatia followed with an afternoon win over Hungary. Here's a look at both games, plus scores from classification matches, and a look at the schedule for the remaining games.
Semifinal 1: Serbia 10, USA 6
The U.S. men’s water polo team has drawn the most exclusions of any team in Paris, but also has the lowest percentage of goals in extra player situations.
Power plays were the difference in Friday’s semifinal game against Serbia. The Serbians were 7-for-8 with an extra player, while the U.S. was just 5-for-14. Serbia went on to win 10-6 to advance to a third straight Olympic gold medal game.
The defensive plan for the U.S. was containing Serbia’s Dusan Mandic, the highest scoring player in Paris. Mandic was held scoreless on Friday, but the double-teams left his teammates open, and they made the Americans pay. Nikola Dedovic had four goals and Nikola Jaksic had three. Between the two, they missed just two shots.
Jaksic stayed hot after he scored a game-winning goal at the buzzer to lead Serbia over Greece in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
The two teams were tied, 2-2, at the end of the first quarter. Serbia took its first lead early in the second with a score right in front of the goal by Petar Jaksic, and extended the lead with another extra player goal by Jaksic on the next possession.
In the first half, Serbia was 4-for-4 on power plays, while the U.S. was 3-for-7. The Americans trailed, 6-4, at the break.
Dedovic scored another extra player goal less than a minute into the second to give Serbia its largest lead of the game to that point.
The U.S. had just one goal in the third quarter as Serbian goalkeeper Radoslav Filipovic made three saves.
Jaksic scored his final goal of the game on another power play with 3:20 remaining to give Serbia its final four-goal lead.
Filipovic had 10 saves on the day. USA goalie Adrian Weinberg had 15 on 25 shots that came his way.
Marco Vavic led the U.S. with two goals.
The U.S. will now play in the bronze medal game looking for its first men's water polo bronze since 2008. It will take on the loser of Hungary and Croatia on Sunday at 4:35 a.m. ET.
Serbia is now guaranteed its fifth straight Olympic medal in men's water polo.
Semifinal 2: Croatia 9, Hungary 8
Croatia scored just two goals in the third quarter and none in the fourth, but a 7-5 halftime lead was enough to carry the team the rest of the way in a 9-8 semifinals win over Hungary.
Five of Croatia's nine goals came courtesy of Loren Fatovic, who was a perfect 5-for-5 on the night. Luka Bukic added two scores.
Marton Vamos and Szilard Jansik led Hungary with two goals each. Hungary was able to draw three penalty shots against Croatia's defense, but missed on all three attempts.
The win sets up a gold medal matchup between Serbia, the defending gold medalists, and Croatia, the 2024 world champions.
Hungary, the 2023 world champions, will face the U.S. in the bronze medal match.
Classification matches
Alvaro Granados and Felipe Perrone had three goals each to lead Spain to an 11-9 win over Italy in the first classification match of the day on Friday.
In classification match 2, Greece defeated Australia, 15-9, behind four goals by Konstantinos Kakaris and three more from Dimitrios Skoumpakis.
Coming up
On Saturday, Australia and Italy will face off at 1:35 p.m. ET in the men's water polo seventh place game.
Championship weekend will continue on Sunday at 3 a.m. ET with Spain taking on Greece in the fifth place game.
The bronze medal match between the U.S. and Hungary will begin at 4:35 a.m. ET on Sunday. The game will air on USA Network and stream on NBCOlympics.com.
The gold medal game between Spain and Croatia will air on USA Network and stream on NBCOlympics.com beginning at 9 a.m. ET on Sunday.