Croatia too strong for Italy in final

Croatia won their first Olympic Games gold medal in the men’s waterpolo with an 8-6 win over Italy in the final in London, yesterday.

Croatia remained unbeaten in the tournament to go one better than their silver medal at Atlanta in 1996 when they beat Italy in the semi-final.

The Italians were bidding for their fourth Olympic title but after scoring the opening two goals they were outplayed by Croatia, who led 8-4 before two late consolation goals tightened the final margin.

Croatia were led by Maro Jokovic with three goals and a double from Miho Boskovic, while Maurizio Felugo, chosen in the all-stars team from the London tournament, scored three times for Italy.

It was a personal triumph for Croatia’s Ratko Rudic, who became the first waterpolo coach to win four Olympic titles, two of them with the former Yugoslavia in 1984 and 1988 and another with Italy in 1992.

The Italians led 2-0 after goals from Valentino Gallo and Felugo before Croatia replied through Ivan Buljubasic with 1:34 left in the opening quarter.

Italy keeper Stefano Tempesti backed up his defence with a couple of fine saves to deny Croatia in the opening term.

Croatia had a stronger second quarter to lead 3-2 after goals from Jokovic and Samir Barac from long distance.

Boskovic put Croatia in command with two goals after Felugo had scored his second for Italy.

Boskovic scored with an extra player shot and converted a penalty after Gallo committed a penalty foul.

Croatia took a two-goal cushion into the final quarter and stormed to a 7-3 lead with a brace from Jokovic before Alex Giorgetti pulled one back.

Sandro Sukno scored with 3:14 left before the Italians found the net with the last two goals from Christian Presciutti and Felugo.

Serbia earlier won the bronze medal with a come from behind 12-11 win over Montenegro.

Serbia clawed back from 11-8 down to net the next four goals unanswered to follow up their bronze medal win over Montenegro in Beijing four years ago.

Filip Filipovic was Serbia’s hero with two of his three goals coming in the final minutes of a combustible match with both Serbia’s coach Dejan Udovicic and his assistant receiving red cards as tensions boiled over.