2020 Men's European Water Polo Championship

LEN announced the choice of Budapest as host for the competition on 9 July 2016.^[5] All the matches were played at the Danube Arena.

Budapest	Budapest 2020 Men's European Water Polo Championship (Europe)
Danube Arena
Capacity: 6,600

Sixteen teams were allowed to the tournament. The qualification was as follows:

• The host nation
• The best seven teams from the 2018 European Championships not already qualified as the host nation
• Eight teams from the qualifiers

Event	Date	Location	Vacancies	Qualified
Host nation	9 July 2016	–	1	Hungary
2018 European Championships	16–28 July 2018	Barcelona	7	Serbia  Spain  Croatia  Italy  Greece  Montenegro  Russia
Qualifiers	11–13 October 2019	Various	8	Georgia  Germany  Slovakia  France  Romania  Malta  Turkey  Netherlands

The sixteen teams were split in four groups with four teams each. The first classified team of each group directly qualified for the quarterfinals, the second and third teams played each other in cross group format to qualify for the quarterfinals.^[6]

The draw of the preliminary round's pools was held in Budapest on 22 October 2019.^[7][8] The teams were divided into four groups of four teams each; according to LEN rules the first batch for the draw was composed by the best four teams of the previous edition, the second batch by the teams ranked from fifth to eighth in 2018, while the third and fourth batch were composed respectively by the teams ranked first and second in the four qualification groups.^[6][9]

The draw resulted in the following groups:^[10][9]

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
Croatia	Netherlands	Hungary	France
Germany	Romania	Malta	Georgia
Montenegro	Russia	Spain	Greece
Slovakia	Serbia	Turkey	Italy

Play-offs

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

22 January

Italy

8

20 January

Montenegro

10

Montenegro

17

24 January

Turkey

6

Montenegro

8

Hungary

10

22 January

Hungary

14

20 January

Russia

10

Russia

14

26 January

Georgia

13

Hungary (PSO)

9 (5)

Spain

9 (4)

22 January

Serbia

6 (3)

20 January

Spain (PSO)

6 (4)

Germany

6

24 January

Spain

12

Spain

9

Croatia

8

Third place

22 January

26 January

Croatia

14

Montenegro

10

20 January

Greece

11

Croatia

9

Romania

7

Greece

14

5th place bracket

	5–8th place semifinals				Fifth place
	24 January
	Italy	14
					26 January
	Russia	12
					Italy	7
	24 January
					Serbia	8
	Serbia	12
	Greece	9
					Seventh place
					26 January
					Russia	9
					Greece	11

9th place bracket

	9–12th place semifinals				Ninth place
	22 January
	Turkey	6
					24 January
	Georgia	12
					Georgia	8
	22 January
					Germany	9
	Germany	15
	Romania	10
					Eleventh place
					24 January
					Turkey	3
					Romania	20

13th place bracket

	13–16th place semifinals				13th place
	20 January
	Slovakia	8
					22 January
	Malta	4
					Slovakia	6
	20 January
					France	9
	Netherlands	8
	France	9
					15th place
					22 January
					Malta	9
					Netherlands	19

20 January 2020 14:30	Report	Montenegro	17–6	Turkey	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Georgios Stavridis (GRE), Gabriella Várkonyi (HUN)
		Score by quarters: 3–1, 5–1, 5–0, 4–4
		Ivović 3	Goals	Özbek, Yenigün 2

20 January 2020 16:00	Report	Germany	6–12	Spain	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Svetlana Dreval (RUS), Boris Margeta (SLO)
		Score by quarters: 1–1, 3–6, 0–3, 2–2
		Real 2	Goals	Granados 5

20 January 2020 17:30	Report	Russia	14–13	Georgia	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Michiel Zwart (NED), Sébastien Dervieux (FRA)
		Score by quarters: 6–4, 3–2, 2–4, 3–3
		Bychkov 5	Goals	Baraldi, Jelaca 3

20 January 2020 19:00	Report	Romania	7–14	Greece	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Sergey Naumov (RUS), Raffaele Colombo (ITA)
		Score by quarters: 3–1, 2–3, 0–6, 2–4
		Negrean 2	Goals	Genidounias 6

22 January 2020 16:00	Report	Italy	8–10	Montenegro	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Michiel Zwart (NED), Georgios Stavridis (GRE)
		Score by quarters: 3–3, 3–4, 1–2, 1–1
		Figari 2	Goals	Petković 4

22 January 2020 17:30	Report	Serbia	9–10 (PSO)	Spain	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Adrian Alexandrescu (ROU), Raffaele Colombo (ITA)
		Score by quarters: 2–1, 1–4, 2–1, 1–0  PSO: 3–4
		Mandić 3	Goals	Perrone, Sanahuja 2

22 January 2020 19:00	Report	Hungary	14–10	Russia	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Radosław Koryzna (POL), Matan Schwartz (ISR)
		Score by quarters: 3–2, 3–3, 4–3, 4–2
		Manhercz, Varga 3	Goals	Kiselev, Merkulov 3

22 January 2020 20:30	Report	Croatia	14–11	Greece	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Boris Margeta (SLO), Sébastien Dervieux (FRA)
		Score by quarters: 6–3, 4–3, 3–3, 1–2
		Joković 4	Goals	Vlachopoulos 3

20 January 2020 11:30	Report	Slovakia	8–4	Malta	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Adrian Alexandrescu (ROU), György Kun (HUN)
		Score by quarters: 3–1, 2–1, 1–2, 2–0
		Zaťovič 4	Goals	S. Camilleri 4

20 January 2020 13:00	Report	Netherlands	8–9	France	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Giuliana Nicolosi (ITA), Ivan Raković (SRB)
		Score by quarters: 3–3, 2–2, 1–2, 2–2
		Gottemaker, Winkelhorst 2	Goals	Marzouki 4

22 January 2020 13:00	Report	Turkey	6–12	Georgia	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Carlos Ortega (ESP), Sergey Naumov (RUS)
		Score by quarters: 1–4, 2–2, 1–4, 2–2
		Acar, Yenigün 2	Goals	Bagaturia, Bitadze 3

22 January 2020 14:30	Report	Germany	15–10	Romania	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Veselin Mišković (MNE), György Kun (HUN)
		Score by quarters: 5–1, 2–5, 5–1, 3–3
		Stamm, Strelezkij 4	Goals	three players 2

24 January 2020 14:30	Report	Italy	14–12	Russia	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Levan Berishvili (GEO), Sébastien Dervieux (FRA)
		Score by quarters: 5–3, 4–4, 3–1, 2–4
		Aicardi 3	Goals	Bychkov, Kharkov 3

24 January 2020 16:00	Report	Serbia	12–9	Greece	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Radosław Koryzna (POL), Carlos Ortega (ESP)
		Score by quarters: 3–3, 3–2, 4–2, 2–2
		Dedović, S. Mitrović 3	Goals	Vlachopoulos 3

24 January 2020 17:30	Report	Croatia	8–9	Spain	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Boris Margeta (SLO), Sergey Naumov (RUS)
		Score by quarters: 1–0, 3–4, 2–2, 2–3
		Munarriz 3	Goals	Bukić 2

24 January 2020 19:00	Report	Montenegro	8–10	Hungary	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Adrian Alexandrescu (ROU), Raffaele Colombo (ITA)
		Score by quarters: 2–1, 1–3, 2–4, 3–2
		Radović 3	Goals	Varga 4

22 January 2020 10:00	Report	Malta	9–19	Netherlands	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Robert Tiozzo (CRO), Levan Berishvili (GEO)
		Score by quarters: 2–5, 2–5, 2–4, 3–5
		S. Camilleri 5	Goals	Van Yperen 6

22 January 2020 11:30	Report	Slovakia	6–9	France	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Gernot Häntschel (GER), Ivan Raković (SRB)
		Score by quarters: 0–2, 1–4, 3–1, 2–2
		Mare. Tkáč 2	Goals	Kalinić 3

24 January 2020 11:30	Report	Turkey	3–20	Romania	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Luis Santos (POR), Róbert Horváth (SVK)
		Score by quarters: 1–5, 0–6, 1–6, 1–3
		three players 1	Goals	Fulea 5

24 January 2020 13:00	Report	Georgia	8–9	Germany	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: György Kun (HUN), Matan Schwartz (ISR)
		Score by quarters: 3–2, 2–0, 2–3, 1–4
		Vapenski 2	Goals	three players 2

26 January 2020 14:30	Report	Russia	9–11	Greece	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Robert Tiozzo (CRO), Carlos Ortega (ESP)
		Score by quarters: 2–2, 2–3, 3–3, 2–3
		Kharkov 4	Goals	Argyropoulos 3

26 January 2020 16:00	Report	Italy	7–8	Serbia	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Michiel Zwart (NED), György Kun (HUN)
		Score by quarters: 2–3, 4–1, 0–2, 1–2
		Di Fulvio 3	Goals	Aleksić, Filipović 2

26 January 2020 17:30	Report	Montenegro	10–9	Croatia	Danube Arena, Budapest Referees: Sergey Naumov (RUS), Raffaele Colombo (ITA)
		Score by quarters: 1–3, 2–4, 4–1, 3–1
		Ivović 5	Goals	three players 2

26 January 2020 19:00	Report	Hungary	14–13 (PSO)	Spain	Danube Arena, Budapest Attendance: 6,600 Referees: Boris Margeta (SLO), Georgios Stavridis (GRE)
		Score by quarters: 1–3, 3–0, 2–2, 3–4  PSO: 5–4
		three players 2	Goals	Munarriz 3

Rank	Team
	Hungary
	Spain3
	Montenegro
4	Croatia
5	Serbia1
6	Italy2
7	Greece
8	Russia
9	Germany
10	Georgia
11	Romania
12	Turkey
13	France
14	Slovakia
15	Netherlands4
16	Malta

• ¹ Serbia qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics as the winner of 2019 World League
• ² Italy qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics as the winner of 2019 World Championships
• ³ Spain qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics as the runners-up of 2019 World Championships
• ⁴ The Netherlands qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics World qualification tournament as the host of the tournament