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The Australian Sharks can book their place in the Rio Olympics Water Polo quarter-finals with a win against Serbia, who have been well off the pace so far. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 11:10am (AEST).
Australia have had an up and down start to the tournament, recording a win, a loss and a draw across their first three games.
The Sharks have improved plenty throughout the tournament though, starting with a loss against Brazil, then a draw against a traditionally strong Hungary team and finally getting their first win against the lowly Japan.
Despite the win coming against Japan, their level of play has looked better and it isn’t just because of their opponents. Their defence has been fantastic, and structures on offence good although execution is lacking a little.
Aaron Kayes and Joe Younger, their main two strike weapons at the front must absolutely come out firing, as they did against Japan when they scored seven of eight goals between them.
Serbia were the top-ranked team in the world coming into the Olympic Games, and also won the world championships last year but have really struggled and at this point are in real danger of missing out on qualification for the quarter-finals.
They are yet to actually win a game, and just lacking any killer edge to their offence or the stopping power required in defence.
In saying that, they have managed to take out two draws and so are still in the hunt.
The first of those draws came in a high-scoring match against Hungary, 13-13 before they went on 9-9 against Greece and then in a worrying form drop off lost 5-6 to Brazil.
While Serbia must get their offensive output back on track, defence is equally important and something they have lacked throughout the Games so far.
The interesting point to note coming into the match is that Australia have the worst attack in their group apart from Japan who will finish dead last, while Serbia actually have scored nine goals a match and that includes a 6-5 loss to Brazil.
So it is essentially the attack of Serbia taking on the defence of Australia, who have been fantastic at that end of the pool.
Serbia have won all of their last five meetings over Australia but their last two in particular during 2015 were nail-biters so hopefully we are in for something similar here.
Prediction
Serbia have been playing well below their best, but will be desperate and hold the ledger over Australia. They should get the job done on the back of their attack.
Serbia 10 – Australia 8
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this important Pool A water polo match at the Maria Lenk Aquatic Centre from 11:10am (AEST) and don’t forget to add a comment below.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde