The national teams of Italy and Croatia on Thursday qualified for the finals of the World Polo Championship in Doha (Qatar), which will take place on Sunday.

Duel between Italy and Croatia in the CM Polo 2024 final

In the first semi-final of the day, Spain vs. Italy, score 6-8, and in the second, Croatia vs. France, score 17-16, after penalties.

Thus, on Sunday, the losers will play for bronze, while the winners Italy and Croatia will compete for the world trophy.

Also on Thursday, in the final ranking match, Romania was defeated by the USA with a score of 13-9, 9-10 place, and earlier it was defeated by China 9-7 (9-12 place).

The tricolors missed qualification in the 1/4, which earned them a ticket to the Paris Olympics, losing in the 1/8 finals to Montenegro (9-12). Romania finished Group D in 3rd place after going 8-15 with Hungary, 25-3 with Kazakhstan and 10-16 with Italy.

The 2024 World Cup also offered the last four spots at the Paris Olympics, for which France, Hungary, Greece, Japan, USA, South Africa, Spain and Australia have already qualified. They were joined by Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Italy from the CM, News.ro reports.

Romania qualified for the World Cup in Doha by reaching the quarter-finals at last month’s European Championship, where they finished in 8th place.

Romania returned to the World Cup after 11 years in 2013, finishing 13th.