In four breath-taking quarterfinals, Croatia upset European champion and world bronze medallist Spain 10-8; Olympic champion Serbia beat Tokyo silver medallist Greece 12-11; United States of America needed a penalty shootout to defeat Australia 11-10 after the match was tied at seven and 2023 world champion Hungary usurped world silver medallist Italy 12-10, also in a shootout after the match was level at nine.

World champion Croatia had the better of European champion Spain. For Spain, it was a first defeat in Paris and for Croatia it was a fourth from six matches. It was amazing that the European champion Sain was playing the world in the first quarterfinal. They contested the European final with Spain winning 11-10 in January. Spain’s skipper, Felipe Perrone was hoping that Paris would give him the medal he so desired from five Olympic Games — four with Spain and one with Brazil. But it was not to be as Croatia dominated all match and was never equalled, let alone headed. Spain was the favourite after its unblemished record, but reputations are there to be destroyed and Croatia did it in style today.

Croatian skipper Maro Jokovic, in his fifth Olympic Games, opened the scoring with two goals  inside a minute, the first on extra and the second from very deep right by 5:16. Spain peppered the goal but could not gain a gap before the quarter-time break. Alvaro Granados finally sent one in for Spain 10 and a half minutes  after the opening whistle. Konstantin Kharkov blasted one in from eight metres and Bernat Sanahuja, with his 12th goal in Paris, converted extra-man attack from the top right. Croatia then really asserted its authority with three unanswered goals from Marko Zuvela from deep right, needing VAR to confirm; Loren Fatovic from seven metres and Ante Vukicevic from the top left for 6-2. Perrone made good with an extra-man shot from the top into the bottom right for 6-3 at 0:48.

Spain made a comeback in the third period with Granados with his 16th  goal and Alberto Munarriz with his 13th either side of a Fatovic counter-attack on extra. Josip Vrlic took the margin to three for the fourth time when he backhanded a cross pass to the right post from the far post to close the scoring at 2:00.

Munarriz converted extra to start the fourth period to bring Spain within two goals at a critical time for the European champion. Sanahuja fired in from the top on action at 5:22 and 8-7. Rino Buric stretched it to two goals on extra from right-hand catch, just getting the ball to cross the line. Kharkov strode in with many baulks and, unguarded, rifled the ball into the net for 10-8 at 3:24. Captain and goalkeeper Marko Bijac stole the ball at 3:01, changing the face of the match and setting Croatia up for an extra-man play. Croatian head coach Ivica Tucak, who has had control of the team since 2012 from the legendary Ratko Rudic, went to the timeout. The ball was turned over. Sanahuja hit the crossbar on the attack, which could have kept the team in the match. Croatia elected to save the ball, work the time down. Spain went to a timeout at 1:22, but the shot was blocked. Croatia slowed the match and gave Spain the last 35 seconds to attack. Finally, Spain lost the ball and Croatia had earned a semifinal berth.

Only one team could win and today it was Serbia, by the slimmest of margins within the four quarters. It was a sad day for Greece but it can hold its head high. It would be hard to find another match with the closeness, the intensity and the dynamic way in which both teams exploded into action in the final minute. Nay, the final seconds. This was edge-of-your-seat water polo. This was two brilliant teams finding ever gram of energy until the final buzzer.

Greece was playing Dusan Mandic. That’s the way it appeared as the Serbian double gold-medal winner played havoc with the Greek defence. While Greece opened, Mandic covered on penalty. Greece went ahead twice more with Serbia responding each time for 3-3 at the quarter break. Mandic squeezed one in from the deep right to start the second period and have his team in front for the first time. Konstantinos Kakaris and Strahinja Rasovic, for his second, scored on extra. Alexandros Papanastasiou levelled on extra and Mandic buried a ball from a six-metre foul for 6-5 at 3:35, the final goal of the half.

Greece had two penalty attempts to start the second half and had one spear over the crossbar. Dimitrios Skoumpakis gave Greece the edge at 4:01 with Mandic responding from six metres, although it appeared the ball left his hand at five metres and Greece protested to no effect. Skoumpakis converted extra off the left-post position and Viktor Rasovic gained his second on extra after a rebound. A Greek timeout yielded Skoumpakis his third goal of the period and 9-8 heading into the final quarter.

Team USA came back from 5-2 behind after suffering the loss of speedster Johnny Hooper to a violence foul late in the first quarter for allegedly striking Chaz Poot in the face to win in a penalty shootout. It was a huge comeback after Australia led inside the final two minutes. Alex Bowen was USA’s saviour to push his team into the successful shootout.

Luke Pavillard had a stellar day for the Aussie Sharks, with four goals, the first with a spectacular 360-degree twist on counter to slam in the shot. Hooper responded from deep right and Milos Maksimovic barred in on extra for 2-1 at 4:27. It was four minutes later that Hooper became entangled with Poot and VAR relayed the bad news to his team, meaning he will probably miss the semifinals. It meant USA would play a man down for four minutes after a penalty shot converted by Pavillard. Maksimovic made the most of extra to open the scoring in the second while Bowen scored against the trend and Jacob Mercep made it 5-2 just inside the four-minute window — meaning a 3-1 advantage. Luca Cupido cheered up the large USA following with an outside shot for 5-3, 22 seconds from halftime.

The tide turned to USA in the third quarter as Maksimovic had his penalty attempted stopped by Adrian Weinberg. Ryder Dodd mailed one in from the top and Hannes Daube converted his penalty attempt for 5-5 at 3:25. Australia went to a timeout with no joy.

Early in the fourth period, Aussie big man and co-captain Nathan Power was fouled out. USA called a timeout and Daube converted the extra-man play for a first-time lead at 6-5. More than three minutes later, Pavillard scored the first of two identical left-arm shots to regain the advantage for Australia. It was 1:53 and Australia was 7-6 up. With less than a minute remaining, USA went to a timeout, earned an ejection and Bowen made sure of the goal for 7-7 at 0:32. 

Australia went to a timeout, but the ball was turned over and the match became a shootout.Australia shot first and both teams scored their first two attempts. Maksimovic had his shot saved; Bowen scored for 10-9; Poot sent his shot into Weinberg’s head and Alex Obert had his attempt saved by Nic Porter. Matthew Byrnes scored and it came down to the last shot on the rotation with Marko Vavic sending USA to the semifinals with an 11-10 scoreline.

Hungary, third in its group, took another unsteady step toward a record 10th Olympic gold medal with a penalty shootout victory over Italy, second in Group A. It meant that both groups have sent two teams to the semifinals — both the third and fourth teams.

Krisztian Manhercz set the stage for Hungary with the first two goals, the second on penalty. He scored the third on extra for 3-1 after Italy had a penalty attempt stopped. Alessandro Velotto scored both Italy’s goals — the second from a six-metre foul — after which he was warned by the referees following a VAR consultation, possibly for over-vigorous play. It was his second and third goals of the tournament. Francesco Condemi was then red-carded for an alleged strike. VAR appeared to show his hand hitting Szilard Jansik in the right eye at the end of his shooting follow through. However, the referees saw it differently and he was given the violence card, gifting a penalty shot to Manhercz, who converted. The extra four minutes were not taken advantage of by Hungary as the period furnished one goal apiece.

Francesco di Fulvio gained the Italian goal — half a minute into the third quarter — sending the ball over the right shoulder of the goalkeeper. Gonzalo Echenique went on counter and made it 4-4. Despite a Hungarian timeout, Italy shifted gear to 6-4 thanks to di Fulvio again. Gergo Zalanki and di Fulvio traded before Zalanki closed the period at 7-6 down. Echenique opened the fourth period; Gergo Fekete on extra and Zalanki with that wicked left arm levelled at 8-8. Fondelli missed his second penalty attempt and Manhercz tidied up for Hungary to regrasp the lead at 9-8.  An Italian timeout was rewarded with a Nicholas Presciutti bouncer on extra for 9-9 at 1:23. Both teams went to a timeout and the final blast came from Jansik — with a bulging black eye — on counter, having his close-in shot tipped away by goalkeeper Marco del Lungo. It was now time for a penalty shootout.

Hungary shot first with Denes Varga hitting the post and di Fulvio having his saved. Marton Vamos made it 10-9 with Fondelli having a horror day from five metres, missing a third. Fekete and Eduardo di Somma had saves registered against their names. The reliable Manhercz made the score 12-10 and Hungary was through to the semifinals.