Defending Olympic champion Hungary will face the United States in the gold medal match of the men's water polo at the Beijing Games.

In Friday's semifinals, Hungary scored a come-from-behind 11-9 victory over Montenegro.

Montenegro was in a three-goal lead in the second quarter, but the Hungarians managed to even the scores and finally took over the lead towards the end of the game.

The victory set Hungarians ready for a third straight win after championing the event in the last two Games. "The Cuban volleyball team did it and the Danish handball team did it. We are going to be the third," said Zoltan Szecsi, the Hungarian goalkeeper.

In another semifinal, the American players overpowered Serbian rivals by 10-5.

Serbian center forward Dusco Pijetlovic said it was a disappointing race as they have not lost to the U.S. in a very long time. "We have played against them in hundreds of matches and not lost. This is horrible, this is a horrible day," he said.

In other matches on Friday, Australia beat Italy 17-16 in a penalty shootout to advance to the seventh-place play-off on Sunday with Greece, which defeated Germany 13-9.

Germany will face Italy for the ninth place, also scheduled on Sunday.

China lost to Canada 7-8 and placed 12th in the final ranking. The Chinese team have not won any match in the Games.

(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2008)