The Netherlands upset defending gold medalists Italy 13-11 in penalty shots in the quarter-finals of the Olympic women’s water polo tournament yesterday.
Erzsebet Valkai’s first missed penalty shot in three years with the Italian national team came at the worst possible time, helping the Dutch to victory.
“Three years, no mistakes in penalties,” Italian coach Mauro Maugeri said. “Never miss. Never in European championships. Never in Olympic qualification. Never in Olympics. Never in three years. Never.”
PHOTO: AFP
The Netherlands advanced to play Hungary in the semi-finals on Tuesday. The Hungarians won the teams’ earlier meeting, 11-9 in pool play.
“It’s our duty to reset that first match, if you know what I mean,” Dutch driver Danielle de Bruijn said. “I think we have a score to settle.”
Australia and the US, the top two teams in the world rankings, will meet in the other semi-final. The Australians overcame countless mistakes to edge China 12-11 yesterday.
“We survived and we’re going to beat America next,” Australian coach Greg McFadden said.
The Netherlands, ranked ninth in the world, came to Beijing as longshots for a medal. And many gave them even less chance after they went 1-2 in preliminary play, with the lone victory coming against a Greek squad that finished 0-4 and was outscored by a whopping 17 goals.
But the Dutch outplayed Italy most of the match. The Italians trimmed a two-goal deficit in half with 2:06 remaining in regulation, then got the equalizer with 4 seconds to play.
Elisa Casanova, playing with a mask to protect her broken nose, drew a penalty shot foul around the 2m spot. Valkai was called on to make the shot, and she skipped it past goalkeeper Ilse van der Meijden. This time, Van der Meijden guessed wrong and lunged in the opposite direction of the ball.
Neither team scored in two overtime periods, and the match went to penalty shots — an alternating, best-of-five situation.
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