Chinese women's water polo makes history again
Updated: 2011-07-28 01:21
(Xinhua)
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SHANGHAI - At the final whistle, all Chinese water polo girls circled around and burst into tears here on Wednesday.
They made history again by beating powerhouse Russia 13-12 to enter final for the first time at women's water polo FINA swimming worlds.
"It's really a close match. The Russian girls are physically tough and they played good defense today. But we outperformed them in counter-attack. It's not easy to go so far (making to the final). We'll go back and work on the details of our game ahead of the final against Greece," said Liu Qinlong, team leader of China.
China usurped lead from the very beginning and kept it till the third period before Ekaterina Lisunova made the equalizer for Russia on 7-7.
Then the game was stuck into the deadlock. After tying on 10-10, China buried two straight goals from Sun Yating, who claimed the top scorer of the match with four goals. Helding off the late clawing back from Russia, Chinese girls pocketed the uneasy victory to enter the final historically.
"We won the match because of the confidence. Seven years ago when the team was formed, my goal was to win as many matches as we could. I never imagine that the breakthrough comes like this fast," said China head coach Pan Shenghua.
"We never lose to Greece, but the last four teams all have what it takes to win the title. So we will go back to study the video tape of the Greece matches," Pan added.
Enjoying a flying start, Greece never looked back by beating Italy 14-11 to book another final berth.
The final will be held on Friday evening.