Greece's senior men's water polo team produced one of the most stunning comebacks in recent World Cup memory, overturning a 9-3 second-quarter deficit to defeat Olympic champion Serbia 15-12 in the 2026 World Aquatics Men's Water Polo World Cup Super Final at Alexandroupoli.
The match looked dead and buried after Serbia, fronted by captain Strahinja Rasovic and the prolific left-handed centre forward Dusan Mandic, surged to a 9-3 lead. Goals from Stefan Stanojevic, Nikola Lukic, Petar Gladovic and Nemanja Filipovic, the latter pair both veterans of Serbia's Tokyo and Paris gold-medal runs, gave the visitors what looked like total control.
Greece's coach Theodoros Vlachos pulled the trigger with a goalkeeper change, sending Panagiotis Afroudakis off in favour of Ioannis Zerdevas. The substitute keeper made an immediate set of point-blank saves that re-energised Greek transition.
"This was the winning game of the day," the World Aquatics broadcast summed up afterwards. The Greek attack found its rhythm through captain Stylianos Argyropoulos, who finished with a hat-trick including the closing goal. Centre forward Konstantinos Genidounias and 23-year-old left-handed shooter Nikolaos Gardikas added high-quality strikes, while Antonios Papanastasiou and Dimitrios Skoumpakis produced critical extra-man finishes.
The most decisive sequence began at the start of the third quarter, when Greece reduced the deficit through Athanasios Kalogeropoulos' second goal of the game. Spahic and Argyropoulos converted back-to-back man-up opportunities, while a violent action sequence drew an exclusion that left Serbia's Filipovic out for the rest of the contest.
From 9-3 down, Greece outscored Serbia 12-3 across the second half to record their first competitive win over the Tokyo and Paris Olympic gold medallists since the lead-up to Paris 2024.
Serbia's Dejan Savic will look at the loss as one of the more painful of his second tenure as national team head coach. His side dominated the opening 15 minutes through Lukic and Gladovic, but the failure to generate consistent transition once Greece tightened its zone defence will require a tactical reset before the World Cup tournament's next stage.
Greece were operating on home water, with Alexandroupoli's purpose-built water polo venue at near capacity. The crowd's role in the second-half momentum swing was visible on the broadcast, particularly during a 4-0 run that took Greece from 11-7 down to 11-11 and finally past Serbia for the first time since the opening minute.
For Argyropoulos, the result is another marker in his evolution into one of Europe's most reliable captains. The 32-year-old has produced winning performances at three majors now and remains the central figure for a Greek programme building toward the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Vlachos' tactical decision to switch goalkeepers and re-shape the zone defence will be studied. Greece's broader 2026 tournament path now opens further, with the Spain-Italy semi-final winner waiting in the next round at Alexandroupoli.
Serbia, despite the defeat, remain among the top three teams on World Aquatics ranking points and have proven nothing in this World Cup is settled. But for one night in Alexandroupoli, Greece showed exactly why they remain a medal threat at every event they enter.
The final score: Greece 15, Serbia 12.