By Sarah Young

LONDON (Reuters) - The army of fans cheered and chanted just as loud, and there was no holding back with the flags and facepaints, but the Hungarian fans were not watching the gold medal match they could be forgiven for expecting, but a clash to decide who came fifth.

By Sarah Young

LONDON (Reuters) - Croatia won gold in the men's water polo, overpowering Italy 8-6 to take home their first Olympic title in the sport and ending an era of Hungarian domination.

LONDON (Reuters) - Croatia won gold in the men's water polo tournament, overpowering Italy 8-6 to win the country's first Olympic title in the sport since its gained independence from Yugoslavia.

The Croatians ran away with the match in the second half, with the Italians failing to threaten and struggling to find a way past the tournament's top-ranked goalkeeper in Croatia's Josip Pavic.

By Peter Parker

LONDON (Reuters) - If you think the Olympic spirit is nonsense, talk to Sandor Tarics, who won gold in Nazi Germany nearly eight decades ago and, at 98, is the oldest surviving Olympic champion.

LONDON (Reuters) - Serbia won the bronze medal in the Olympic men's water polo on Sunday, beating Montenegro 12-11 in a repeat of the outcome of the third-place match in Beijing.

A late surge from Serbia reversed a three-goal deficit and they scored in the final minute of the game to deny the Montenegrins the medal after a fierce battle which saw referees hand out four red cards to the Serbians.

By Sarah Young

LONDON (Reuters) - Fired up by defeats of defending champions Hungary and European title-holders Serbia in their last two matches, Italy have high hopes of upsetting favourites Croatia in Sunday's water polo final (3.50 p.m. British Time) at the London Olympics.

By Sarah Young

LONDON (Reuters) - Italy defeated tournament favourites Serbia 9-7 in the semi-finals of the men's water polo tournament, setting up a gold-medal match against Croatia and leaving their beaten opponents fighting for the bronze for the second Olympics in a row.

LONDON (Reuters) - Italy defeated Serbia 9-7 in the semi-finals of the men's water polo tournament, lining up a gold-medal match against Croatia, and denying tournament favourites Serbia a shot at the gold medal.

The Italians upstaged the Serbians, who failed to convert their offensive opportunities and found themselves thwarted by the Italian's impenetrable goalkeeper Stefano Tempesti.

By Sarah Young

LONDON (Reuters) - Croatia beat Montenegro 7-5 to win a place in the gold medal match of the Olympic men's water polo, meaning the country will feature on the podium for the first time in the tournament since 1996.

By Sarah Young

LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. won the country's first gold medal in women's water polo, going one better than they did in Beijing to finally claim the sport's top prize and end 12 years of painful near-misses for four-time Olympians Brenda Villa and Heather Petri.

LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. beat Spain 8-5 to win the country's first gold medal in women's water polo, going one better than they did in Beijing to finally claim the sport's top prize after 12 years of painful near-misses.

Spain, making their Olympic debut in the women's event, kept up with the pace in the first quarter but were overpowered by a stronger American side from the second quarter and failed to look like a threat again.

LONDON (Reuters) - Australia won the bronze in the Olympic women's water polo on Wednesday, beating Hungary 13-11 after the Australians almost allowed the medal to slip through their fingers when a last gasp steal by the Hungarians pushed the match to extra time.

A backshot in the last three seconds from Hungary's Dora Antal equalised the match to take it to extra time after she stole the ball from Australia's goalkeeper just as the Australians were counting down the clock.

By Sarah Young

LONDON (Reuters) - Italy battled past Hungary and Croatia disposed of the U.S. to join Montenegro and Serbia in the men's water polo semi-finals, which will feature neither of the Beijing gold and silver medallists after a thrilling quarter-finals round.

By Sarah Young

LONDON (Reuters) - Italy called time on Hungary's 12-year reign of Olympic water polo in a thrilling quarter-final clash which crushed Hungarian hopes of a record fourth consecutive gold medal.

LONDON (Reuters) - Italy beat reigning Olympic champions Hungary 11-9 in the quarter-finals of the men's water polo tournament, crushing Hungarian hopes of a record fourth consecutive gold medal.

Italy's battling performance called time on Hungary's 12-year domination of Olympic water polo and booked the Italians a semi-final clash against gold-medal favourites Serbia on Friday.

By Sarah Young

LONDON (Reuters) - Gold-medal favourites Serbia joined their Balkan neighbours Montenegro in the semi-finals of the Olympic water polo tournament on Wednesday, after staging a decisive turnaround in the second half of their match against Australia.