User:Kevin1109/sandbox

The 2018 Men's European Water Polo Championship will be held in Barcelona, Spain.

Qualification
Sixteen teams will be allowed to the tournament. The qualification is as follows:
 * The host nation
 * The best seven teams from the 2016 European Championships not already qualified as the host nation
 * Eight teams from the qualifiers

Format
The sixteen teams are split in four groups with four teams each. The first classified team of each group will qualify directly for the quarterfinals, the second and third teams will play each other in cross group format to qualify for the quarterfinals and the fourth placed teams will play each other for places 13 to 16 in cross group format. The losing teams of each round in the knock-out phase will play each other for the places behind those who won the match.

Draw
The first batch consists of the teams ranked 1st to 4th in the 2016 European Championships, the second batch consists of the teams ranked 5th to eight. The third batch will be filled with teams that qualify in the qualifiers.

Preliminary round
All times are local (UTC+2).

Knockout stage

 * 5th place bracket


 * 9th place bracket


 * 13th place bracket

Top goalscorers
Source: wpbelgrade2016.microplustiming.com