SPORTS
Water Polo big guns show no mercy
Baku, June 12, AZERTAC
Hungary, Greece, Netherlands, Spain, Russia and Italy cruise to wins as women's Water Polo event starts at the Baku 2015 European Games.
Water Polo's powerhouse nations dealt out some harsh lessons on day one of women's competition.
Hungary were four goals up inside four minutes as they cruised to a 21-4 Group A triumph against Germany, which the German team's head coach, Petar Trbojevic, felt highlighted the gulf in quality.
"This is what people in Germany do not understand. We do not need to start from zero. We need to start from minus 21 because they scored 21 goals," said the Serbian.
Greece, winners of the 2013 Women's European Junior Water Polo Championship, eased to a 20-2 victory against Great Britain, while the Netherlands enjoyed a similarly comfortable 29-1 success against Israel.
In Group B, Alejandra Aznar Diez scored four times as Spain defeated Serbia 17-4, although Serbia coach Vladimir Bajkovic was far from despondent.
"We were expecting a larger gap but we would have been more happy to concede three or four goals less. We gifted them three or four goals," he said.
Italy also lived up to expectations with a dominant 22-5 win against France, as Russia recovered from a slow start to beat Slovakia 13-4.