# 2006 Men's European Water Polo Championship

The 2006 Men's European Water Polo Championship' was the 27th exhibition of the event organised by the Europe's governing body in aquatics, the Ligue Européenne de Natation. The event took place in the Tašmajdan Sports Centre in Belgrade, Serbia, from 1 to 10 September 2006.
There were three qualification tournaments ahead of the event, held from 7 to 9 April 2006 in Kranj, Slovenia (with France, Slovenia, Slovakia and Malta competing), in Eindhoven, Netherlands (Greece, Netherlands, Poland and Moldova), and in Imperia, Italy (Belarus, Italy, Romania and Turkey).

## Qualification

* Further information: 2006 Men's European Water Polo Championship Qualifiers

## Preliminary round
### Group A

| | Team | Points | G | W | D | L | GF | GA | Diff |
| 1. | Serbia | 15 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 78 | 34 | +44 |
| 2. | Spain | 9 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 59 | 54 | +5 |
| 3. | Romania | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 41 | 48 | −7 |
| 4. | Russia | 6 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 49 | 53 | −4 |
| 5. | Netherlands | 5 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 46 | 58 | −12 |
| 6. | Slovakia | 1 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 36 | 62 | −26 |
September 1, 2006
| 10:00 | Romania | 8 – 11 | Spain | (2–4, 2–4, 2–1, 2–2) |
| 13:00 | Netherlands | 11–11 | Slovakia | (4–3, 2–3, 3–3, 2–2) |
| 20:15 | Serbia | 13 – 6 | Russia | (5–1, 3–1, 3–2, 2–2) |
September 2, 2006
| 11:30 | Spain | 13 – 8 | Slovakia | (3–3, 3–2, 4–0, 3–3) |
| 13:00 | Romania | 13 – 10 | Russia | (2–3, 4–1, 4–3, 3–3) |
| 20:15 | Serbia | 17 – 10 | Netherlands | (6–4, 3–1, 4–3, 4–2) |
September 3, 2006
| 11:30 | Netherlands | 8–8 | Romania | (4–2, 2–4, 1–1, 1–1) |
| 13:00 | Russia | 10 – 13 | Spain | (1–5, 5–1, 3–5, 1–2) |
| 20:15 | Serbia | 19 – 2 | Slovakia | (4–1, 5–0, 6–1, 4–0) |
September 4, 2006
| 10:00 | Russia | 11 – 5 | Netherlands | (3–0, 2–2, 4–0, 2–3) |
| 11:30 | Romania | 7 – 6 | Slovakia | (1–2, 4–2, 1–1, 1–1) |
| 20:15 | Serbia | 16 – 11 | Spain | (3–1, 5–3, 3–3, 5–4) |
September 5, 2006
| 11:30 | Slovakia | 9 – 12 | Russia | (2–2, 2–4, 1–3, 4–3) |
| 13:00 | Netherlands | 12 – 11 | Spain | (4–2, 3–4, 4–2, 1–3) |
| 20:15 | Serbia | 13 – 5 | Romania | (4–2, 2–1, 4–1, 3–1) |

### Group B

| | Team | Points | G | W | D | L | GF | GA | Diff |
| 1. | Hungary | 15 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 82 | 41 | +41 |
| 2. | Italy | 9 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 57 | 50 | +7 |
| 3. | Greece | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 59 | 48 | +11 |
| 4. | Germany | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 52 | 54 | −2 |
| 5. | Croatia | 5 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 57 | 52 | +5 |
| 6. | Slovenia | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 33 | 95 | −62 |
September 1, 2006
| 11:30 | Hungary | 23 – 6 | Slovenia | (5–1, 8–0, 4–2, 6–3) |
| 17:15 | Greece | 11 – 8 | Germany | (1–1, 4–1, 3–4, 3–2) |
| 18:45 | Croatia | 8 – 9 | Italy | (2–2, 0–2, 4–3, 2–2) |
September 2, 2006
| 10:00 | Slovenia | 6 – 19 | Greece | (2–5, 1–4, 2–3, 1–7) |
| 17:15 | Italy | 8 – 11 | Germany | (1–4, 2–2, 1–2, 4–3) |
| 18:45 | Croatia | 11 – 16 | Hungary | (3–4, 4–3, 1–5, 3–4) |
September 3, 2006
| 10:00 | Germany | 14 – 6 | Slovenia | (2–2, 5–0, 2–3, 5–1) |
| 17:15 | Greece | 10–10 | Croatia | (2–2, 1–1, 4–4, 3–3) |
| 18:45 | Hungary | 13 – 6 | Italy | (3–2, 6–2, 2–1, 2–1) |
September 4, 2006
| 13:00 | Italy | 20 – 7 | Slovenia | (7–1, 3–1, 4–2, 6–3) |
| 17:15 | Hungary | 10 – 8 | Greece | (3–2, 3–2, 1–2, 3–2) |
| 18:45 | Croatia | 9–9 | Germany | (3–2, 3–1, 2–2, 1–4) |
September 5, 2006
| 10:00 | Slovenia | 8 – 19 | Croatia | (2–7, 3–5, 2–4, 1–3) |
| 17:15 | Germany | 10 – 20 | Hungary | (1–7, 4–4, 5–3, 0–6) |
| 18:45 | Greece | 11 – 14 | Italy | (2–2, 3–3, 2–4, 4–5) |

## Final round
### Places 7/12

September 7, 2006
| 10:00 | Netherlands | 12 – 8 | Slovenia | (3–1, 0–2, 1–5, 4–4) |
| 11:30 | Slovakia | 6 – 12 | Croatia | (3–4, 0–1, 3–5, 0–2) |
September 8, 2006
| 11:30 | Croatia | 10 – 7 | Russia | (2–1, 4–1, 1–2, 3–3) |
| 13:00 | Netherlands | 6 – 12 | Germany | (3–3, 1–3, 1–2, 1–4) |

#### Places 11 / 12

September 8, 2006
| 10:00 | Slovenia | 9 – 10 | Slovakia | (2–4, 1–3, 5–2, 1–1) |

#### Places 9 / 10

September 9, 2006
| 10:00 | Russia | 15 – 10 | Netherlands | (5–3, 3–3, 5–0, 2–4) |

#### Places 7 / 8

September 9, 2006
| 11:30 | Croatia | 11 – 7 | Germany | (2–1, 4–3, 2–1, 3–2) |

### Quarterfinals

September 7, 2006
| 18:45 | Spain | 12 – 10 | Greece | (3–2, 3–3, 2–3, 4–2) |
| 20:15 | Romania | 10 – 9 | Italy | (4–4, 2–5, 1–0, 3–0) |

### Semifinals

September 8, 2006
| 18:45 | Romania | 6 – 13 | Serbia | (0–4, 1–2, 2–3, 3–4) |
| 20:15 | Spain | 10 – 16 | Hungary | (3–5, 2–3, 1–4, 4–4) |

### Finals
#### Places 5 / 6

September 9, 2006
| 13:00 | Greece | 10 – 11 | Italy | (1–2, 1–0, 3–3, 3–3, 1–2, 1–1) |

#### Bronze medal

September 10, 2006
| 18:45 | Romania | 4 – 10 | Spain | (1–2, 2–2, 0–3, 1–3) |

#### Gold medal

September 10, 2006
| 21:00 | Serbia | 9 – 8 | Hungary | (2–4, 4–1, 2–3, 1–0) |

## Final ranking

| RANK | TEAM |
| | Serbia |
| | Hungary |
| | Spain |
| 4. | Romania |
| 5. | Italy |
| 6. | Greece |
| 7. | Croatia |
| 8. | Germany |
| 9. | Russia |
| 10. | Netherlands |
| 11. | Slovakia |
| 12. | Slovenia |
* 2006 Men's European champion
* Serbia Fourth title

## Individual awards

* Most Valuable Player
** Tamás Kásás (HUN)
* Best Goalkeeper
** Denis Šefik (SRB)
* Topscorer
** Aleksandar Šapić (SRB)— 33 goals

## Medalists

| Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| SERBIA1. Denis Šefik GK 2. Petar Trbojević 3. Živko Gocić 4. Vanja Udovičić 5. Dejan Savić 6. Danilo Ikodinović 7. Slobodan Nikić 8. Filip Filipović 9. Aleksandar Ćirić 10. Aleksandar Šapić 11. Vladimir Vujasinović 12. Branko Peković 13. Slobodan Soro GK 14. Duško Pijetlović 15. Andrija Prlainović Head coach Dejan Udovičić | HUNGARY1. Zoltán Szécsi 2. Dániel Varga 3. Norbert Madaras 4. Ádám Steinmetz 5. Tamás Kásás 6. Márton Szívós 7. Gergely Kiss 8. Norbert Hosnyánszky 9. Rajmund Fodor 10. Dénes Varga 11. Gábor Kis 12. Tamás Molnár 13. Péter Biros 14. Miklós Gór-Nagy 15. Gábor Jászberényi Head coach Dénes Kemény | SPAIN1. Inaki Aguilar 2. Mario García 3. David Martín 4. Ricardo Perrone 5. Guillermo Molina 6. Sergio Mora 7. Oscar Rey 8. José Rodríguez 9. Xavier Vallès 10. Felipe Perrone 11. Iván Pérez 12. Xavier García 13. Ángel Andreo 14. Marc Minguell 15. Blai Mallarach Head coach Rafael Aguilar |

## Top scorers

| Pl. | Player | Goals |
| 1. | Aleksandar Šapić (SRB) | 33 |
| 2. | Miho Bošković (CRO) | 21 |
| 3. | Tamás Kásás (HUN) | 20 |
| 4. | Guillermo Molina (ESP) | 18 |
| | Georgios Ntoskas (GRE) | 18 |