The Australian men's water polo team has been robbed of victory in the final seconds of their knockout quarter-final against Greece at the FINA World Championships in Russia.
Greece levelled the scores at 7-all with the game all but over before managing to outscore the Aussie Sharks 5-4 in the penalty shootout.
The Greeks now face Olympic champions Croatia in a semi-final showdown while Australia heads to the playoffs to fight for fifth to eighth.
The Australians had come back from a goal down at three quarter time to twice hit the lead, the second time with just 38 seconds left in the match.
The Sharks were aiming to become the first Australian men's team to reach the semis at a world championships or Olympic Games since 1998.
The emotions were raw for Australian AJ Roach after the game, even after having contributed three goals in one of many wonderful performances by the Australians.
"I don't really know what to say at the moment," Roach said.
"It was a penalty shootout and it's so cruel to end the game when I think we deserved to win.
"There's still too many little mistakes and that's what cost us. I made one and that's one goal and that's what drew the game. It hurts."
Roach said the Sharks were still a team to be reckoned with and believed they had shown enough in their past few matches to suggest they can be a medal threat at the Olympic Games in Rio next year.
"We can play with all the teams now, it's obvious," Roach said.
"We deserved to win three games this tournament. Okay, we didn't win but I feel really confident in the team. It's hard to say now when we've just lost but I still feel really confident in the team and what we're doing.
The Aussie Stingers, Australia's women's team, will play the Olympic champion USA side for a place in the gold medal game when they swimoff in semi final action at 830 Wednesday night local time (330 Thursday morning AEST).
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