A scandalous 26-0 complicates life in Spain in the European water polo

Hungra's bulky victory over Malta forces the national team to play the round of 16 and cross into Serbia in the quarterfinals

Spain could already celebrate it. After his 24-7 victory against Turkey, the first place in Group C of the European was almost his and, with him, a concatenation of advantages: he would avoid the knockout stages and in the quarters he expected an affordable duel against Georgia or Russia. The party could start. Only one detail was missing.

His top rival in the group, Hungra, with whom he drew on the second day, could still beat the national team by goal-average, but for that he needed to beat Malta by more than 19 goals. An exaggeration. Malta is very possibly the worst team in the championship, but also the feat forced the team to score five goals that their opponent in each quarter of eight minutes. A practically impossible task …

That was very, very possible. Because in the end the victory went much further. Hungra not only won by more than 19 goals: he won by 26. A scandalous 26-0 that equal the biggest beating in the history of the tournament (27-1 from Greece to Turkey two years ago) and that left some historical numbers.

Hungra scored almost all of his pitches (36), only threw six times out of goalkeeper and received four unique stops from one of Malta's goalkeepers, Nicholas-Kane Grixti. But that was not the most spectacular the show was in its own frame. The Maltese fired 14 shots and only five of them finished among the three suits, all stopped by the Hungarian goal, Viktor Nagy.

The attitude of Malta, a selection of fans surpassed by the stage, did not leave many doubts, but it did greatly complicate the life of Spain in the European. Now he must face Germany in the round of 16 and, if he reaches the quarterfinals, face Serbia, the current Olympic and European champion.

The women's team, before their key game

The bad drink of the men's team will not pass the female, because they will play the first group position directly, this Sunday (4 pm) against the Netherlands. In a European with a completely different format, if you win you will have a few simple rooms, against Slovakia and Croatia, and avoid precisely Hungra, the best selection of the tournament, until the final.