FINA Men's Water Polo World League 2015: round 3 - TUR vs FRA

Turkey comes from behind to post first win

 By: Tim Hartog  National Teams, World League

Turkey have gained their first win in this year's FINA men's World League Europe prelims campaign after a 9-7 win over 2014 European championships participant France in Istanbul in a postponed day 3 match-up, played on Monday. The Turkish side, narrowly defeated in the final qualification play-off for the Budapest 2014 championships, saw the slightly favourite French team grabbing a 1-3 in a low scoring first half before a big response would come up in the third term. There home side Turkey turned things around and grabbed control despite France holding on to stay close. The fourth period remained close as France managed to cut down the Turkish lead to just 7-6 early on. However the final answer came from Turkey who decided the contest in the remainder scoring two unanswered goals for the two-goal victory; their first win in group C so far. Former Jug Dubrovnik player Arslan 'Josip' Sutalo led the scorers for the home team with 3 goals while Toğkan Özbek and Alican Çağatay added 2 apiece. A balanced French attack featured 7 different goal scorers. Next up for both teams is day 5 (17 February) as Turkey hosts Italy in Istanbul again while France travels to Budva to take on Montenegro. But before that the important first round of the 2016 European championships qualification phase will be played next weekend where France plays in the Netherlands, battling Malta, Latvia and the home team, and Turkey, once again, will play host to one of the three groups in Istanbul. Here Germany, Belarus and Lithuania will battle to gain as much points as possible. 

FINA Men's World League 2014-2015
Europe preliminary round
Day 3 - Monday 29 December, 2014 / Monday 2 February, 2015

Croatia vs. Montenegro 14-8 (2-2, 4-2, 3-2, 5-2) - in Rijeka, Croatia

Turkey vs. France 9-7 (1-1, 0-2, 6-2, 2-2) - in Istanbul, Turkey

The current standings are now as follows:

Group A

1. Hungary 3 - 9 pts
2. Greece 3 - 6
3. Romania 3 - 2
4. Slovakia 3 - 1

Group B

1. Serbia 3 - 9 pts
2. Russia 3 - 6
3. Spain 3 - 3
4. Germany 3 - 0

Group C

1. Croatia 4 - 12 pts
2. Italy 3 - 5
3. Montenegro 3 - 4
4. Turkey 3 - 3
5. France 3 - 0