Game 1 – Montenegro 9, Spain 9
Both Montenegro and Spain came into Sunday’s final pool play game needing a win – and neither team got it.
Battling for positioning in the quarterfinals, neither team was able to come away with the upper hand, coming away with a 9-9 tie.
Coming in to the game, Spain was tied for first with Croatia and Italy in Group A, while Montenegro was just below them in fourth. Spain was already guaranteed a spot in the quarterfinals and could have moved up for better positioning with a win.
The game was tied at 2-2 after the first quarter, and Spain grabbed a one goal lead in the second, and held that lead through three quarters.
Down a goal to start the fourth, Montenegro tied it early on a goal from long range by Darko Brguljan. The scoring stopped for both teams until just two minutes remained. Spain went back up a goal when Francisco Miranda found the net from the left side, but Montenegro answered when Aleksandar Radovic scored from just in front of the goal with 1:30 remaining to tie the game at 9-9.
Both teams missed on their final attempts as the clock ran out.
Brguljan, Radovic and Mladan Janovic led Montenegro with two goals each. Goalkeeper Zdravko Radic saved just four of 13 shots attempts.
Guillermo Rios led Spain with two goals. Spain had eight different players get on the score sheet. Daniel Pinedo had 14 saves in the match, seven saves on nine shots from beyond five meters.
Spain finishes group play 3-1-1. Montenegro is now 2-2-1.