The unstoppable Greek women’s water polo team won the bronze medal at the European Championships after defeating Italy and also secured their qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
According to Ant1live, the Greek national team won their fifth European Women’s Water Polo Championship medal and 13th overall, after beating Italy 7-6 in the minor final.
The bronze medal was not the only gain from that success, as the team also secured qualification for the Paris Olympics this summer, their first since 2008 and fourth overall.
The orders of Alexia Kammenou in the previous days swirled in the minds of the internationals, who implemented them to the letter. The defense improved, the Greek women faced the Italian team even with one less player and all that was left was to make the attack work.
Irini Ninou gave the signal, followed by Margarita Pleuritou and Alexandra Asimaki. In between, Ioanna Stamatopoulou had saved a penalty by the Italian girls, who had several attempts on the crossbar, just like Greece, however.
In the 2nd eight minutes, Greece continued their excellent defense and after a goal by Elena Xenakis, they gained a safe lead. Italy kept sending the ball to the post (even the goalkeeper had such an effort at the last second) and failed to score.
The Greek defense continued to prevent the Italian counter-attack, who scored after 14 minutes through Roberta Bianconi. The problem for Greece was that they too could not score until Asimaki turned back the years and made it 5-2 18 minutes from the end of the period.
Italy was playing its… best in the 4th period, at the same time as Greece collapsed. Two unanswered goals put Italy back into the game, with Eleftheria Pleuritou trying to break their momentum. The dismissal of Matrias Patra and the goals of Giulia Viacava and Silvia Avenio (with a penalty) brought the game to a level.
Nicole Eleftheriadou’s fireball at 3:30 from the end gave the Greek team a breather, which then defended with all its might and kept the lead until the end.
The end of the race found Greece on the winners’ podium and with a ticket to Paris in the summer.
After this victory, Kammenou’s team climbs to the third place of the podium and adds to its collection the 13th medal in its history and the first bronze at the European level.
Source: Ant1live.
