Men’s Water Polo team battle hard in Euro's qualifying group

[Article images courtesy of Gorazd Kavčič/European Aquatics]

With Great Britain’s matches based taking place in Kranji, Slovenia, the 14-strong selected squad began their qualification tournament against a ruthless Netherlands side that would go undefeated in topping Group A - Harry Bentham breaking Great Britain’s duck on the scoresheet after 19 minutes, ahead of a further two consolation goals in the final quarter of the 27-3 loss.

Resiliently putting their opening result behind them, a brilliant win was clinched over Czechia thanks to a superb defending display. Early in the second quarter, the Czechs led the match 3-5 – and few would have anticipated that in the remaining 22 minutes only the Brits would find the back of the net again. Great Britain produced a devastating and clinical 10-0 run, completely shutting out the Czechs on each of their attacks. James Blenkinship provided the finishing touch on four goals in the 13-5 triumph, with seven different British goalscorers in the game.

Blenkinship would extend his leading goalscorer role as he bagged another four as Great Britain claimed a heroic win over Poland in the morning of a fixture double header on the final day - setting up a winner takes all clash against hosts Slovenia in the evening. The young British side coming back from behind again, battling their way to a memorable 11-9 victory.

“That was why we play the sport isn’t it, unbelievable!” said Dan Paddon in reaction to the team’s second win on the bounce.

“It’s hard to have that belief sometimes when we’ve come so often on the wrong end of those close results, but today it felt amazing – almost like we won a final.

“Everyone stepped up in that match, and it’s often easy to look just at the goalscorers but for me one moment that stood out was when George [Arthur Davies] stepped back and made a great steal with like a minute to go and keep us one goal up which was really important.

“We’ll look to build on that tonight – we played the Slovenian’s last week [at the Danube Cup] but I think we’ve definitely improved as a team in these last few games and we’re up for the battle.”

Playing twice on the same day is challenging, and unfortunately an experienced Slovenian side had control of the concluding fixture by half time with an 8-2 lead. The hosts never looked back and secured their appearance at the 2026 European Water Polo Championships with a powerful 16-6 victory.

For Great Britain this meant a third-place finish in Group A to rank just outside the qualification places, but the team can move on with plenty of positives as they target future opportunities to play on the international stage.

Detailed results available on the Microplus website, with live streaming of matches available through EuroAquaticsTV.com.