The Hungarian team, which led the final from start to finish at the Olympic Swimming Pool Centre, had began the tournament with a 14-13 defeat by Italy in their opening Group B match, but maintained a 100 per cent record thereafter, beating Israel 18-8 and the United States 10-8.

They then beat New Zealand 21-3 in the quarter-final before earning their place in the final after another close match with Italy, this time one which they won 10-9.

Previously in this tournament Hungary, who inflicted Spain’s first loss in three finals, had won two silver and four bronze medalss.

The victory added to a triumphant sequence for Hungary, which already holds the world title in the senior men’s, U20 men’s and junior women’s categories.

Hungary has also won European titles in the women’s U17 and boys’ U15 categories.

In the bronze-medal match, the Netherlands, who finished seventh in 2021, beat Italy 13-11 and collected its second bronze to go alongside one gold and two silver medals at this level and leap-frogged three positions from 2021.

Spain had topped Group A with three wins out of three, before beating Israel 10-4 in their quarter-final and then winning their semi-final against The Netherlands 14-4.

In other classification matches, the US came from four down to beat Greece for fifth place,

Israel beat New Zealand 15-6 for seventh; Australia defeated Brazil 16-10 for ninth and Croatia beat Canada 12-7 for 11th place.

Japan led all the way until France came from behind against Japan, scoring five consecutive goals to help earn a 19-17 win and 13th position.

Kazakhstan took 15th place thanks to a 10-6 win over the hosts.

The nine-day tournament in the capital city of Portugal’s central region involved 300 emerging elite water polo players under the age of 20.

It was the third staging of this biennial tournament by Portugal, following the Madeiran city of Funchal hosting in 2019 and Porto holding in 2007.