BEIJING (AP) Serbia won the bronze medal in men's Olympic water polo Sunday, beating Balkan neighbor Montenegro 6-4 despite playing without two of its top players - who were injured under circumstances the team refused to discuss.
Serbia's top scorer, Aleksandar Sapic, was home in Belgrade undergoing surgery on a knee injury. The goalkeeper, Denis Sefik, stayed at the Olympic Village with a broken hand.
Rumors swirled the two were injured in a fight between each other, but the men's water polo team blocked out the distraction and focused on salvaging the Beijing Olympics.
The bronze medal match was a battle of two countries that used to be one, but Montenegro split from Serbia two years after the unified nation won silver at the 2004 Athens games.
"The biggest issue about everything is we took the bronze medal," said Serbian coach Dejan Udovicic. "I don't want to talk about anything else. We are dealing with our problems like everybody else. But our problems are not your problems."
Udovicic refused to address a report by Germany's Welt Online that Sapic and Sefik were injured after getting into a fight following Friday's semifinal loss to the United States.
Sapic, a four-time Olympian considered the best player in the world, sustained a severe leg injury and Sefik broke his hand, Welt reported.
Udovicic admitted Sefik stayed behind at the Olympic Village with a broken hand, and Sapic underwent surgery Sunday in Belgrade on his right knee. But the coach would not discuss how the two were injured.
"I don't want to talk about this," the coach said.
Serbia center forward Dusko Pijetlovic disputed the Welt report, saying Sapic injured his knee when he fell down the stairs and Sefik hurt his hand several days ago but only recently realized it was broken.
Pijetlovic denied his teammates fought, but acknowledged team tension following the embarrassing 10-5 blowout loss to the Americans.
"Nobody spoke for like two hours," he said. "But there was no fight. We are a team. We need to stay focused. We wanted a gold medal, but after losing to the U.S.A., this was the best we could do."
Down to 11 players without Sapic and Sefik, the Serbians were also plagued by severe foul trouble that sent another three players to the bench.
Still, Dejan Sapic scored two goals to help the Serbs open up a 6-1 lead.
Montenegro, a surprise semifinalist, closed the match to 6-4 as the Serbs tired from lack of substitute manpower.
"It was hard for us to have such a small bench," Pijetlovic said. "They are a very tough team and we all knew they would come back. They are like that. They start slow and play very tough until the end."
But Montenegro ran out of time to overcome its early deficit.
"It was too late," said coach Petar Porobic. "We explained before the match we must play without nerves. But because they wished for first place, and then after we lost the match against Hungary, they lost the energy and we could not respond today.
"It is difficult to explain why we played too nervous. And I am very angry because we lost match."
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