Russia and Egypt emerge as biggest winners of Day 3 in Zagreb

On Aug 5, 2026

With one round remaining in the group phase at the World Men’s U16 Championships in Zagreb, eight teams are unbeaten.

Those are: Russia, Croatia, Egypt, Hungary, Brazil, New Zealand, USA and Serbia. In addition to them, several other teams are still in the race for the quarterfinal tickets.

Montenegro made the headlines in our coverage yesterday after claiming a derby victory over Italy. The Montenegrins were back in the spotlight today in one of the day’s big matchups, but this time they finished on the losing side.

Russia defeated Montenegro 11:10 in a shootout. The game had several twists during regular time. Russia led 3:1 at the first break, but Montenegro took the lead at halftime, going up 5:4. In the fourth period, Russia regained a two-goal advantage at 7:5. However, Montenegro fought back, equalizing at 7:7 and again at 8:8, but ultimately fell short in the shootout.

Russia is a strong team; however, it has not played any matches in the past four years and was not included in the pre-tournament World Aquatics Ranking List. As a result, every loss to Russia is costly, as it carries few points in the current format of the World U16 Championships. On the other hand, Russia has the opportunity to gain a significant number of points by winning against higher-ranked teams. For example, Russia earned 99.2 points for a penalty shootout victory over Montenegro, while Montenegro received only 38 points for that loss.

Russia kept the top spot in the standings, while Montenegro, which was in 9th place yesterday, dropped to 18th.

The schedule and the drawing have a significant influence in this format (even though the teams were sorted into different pots before the draw).

There isn’t a significant difference between a victory over a team that was ranked among the lowest-placed before the tournament and a loss to a high-ranked team. For example, Italy received 72,2 points for a 10:12 defeat against Montenegro, while the USA accumulated 76.2 points for a 26:1 win over Zimbabwe.

Besides Russia, the big winner of the day is Egypt. The North Africans beat China 8:6. Considering that China was in 6th place in the pre-tournament World Aquatics age group rankings, Egypt won 96,2 TPI points today and climbed to 2nd place.

It’s likely that the Egyptians will beat tomorrow’s opponent, Zimbabwe, but they will not get many points for that match. Anyway, Egypt has realistic chances of reaching the quarterfinals.

Brazil and New Zealand, the remaining non-European teams that are among the top 8 now, will face off on Day 4.

The battle for the quarterfinals spots is wide open.

Two teams with perfect records, the USA and Serbia, are currently outside the Top 8 rankings. The USA sits in 10th place, while Serbia is in 11th. However, both teams have the opportunity to gain a significant number of points if they win their matches on Day 4. The USA will face Australia, and Serbia will go up against Canada. Both the Canadians and the Australians are placed high in the WA Rankings.

Italy and Spain, which each suffered one loss and hold 7th and 8th place in the standings, are in a good position. They will play against, on paper, easy opponents – China and Singapore, which are highly ranked. China is in 6th place, and Singapore in 10th place in the WA Rankings. So, the Spaniards and the Italians can also receive a lot of points if they win convincingly.