The Australian Men’s Water Polo team suffered a narrow 7-8 loss to home side Brazil in the opening match of the Rio Olympic Games.

In front of a packed and very energetic home crowd, the Brazilians rose to the challenge taking an early lead that they were able to maintain.

The Aussies were in the hunt throughout and put in a gutsy performance in the final quarter to be within striking distance of an equalizer in the dying seconds.

Australian team captain, Rhys Howden, admitted it was a big disappointment to start the Olympics off with a loss, but believes his side will be able to bounce back come game two.

“It’s always tough to lose one especially when we had the opportunity to tie in the end. That’s the thing about sport, there’s a winner and a loser and unfortunately we were on the wrong end of that tonight,” Howden said.

“We anticipated a pretty vocal crowd… but seeing it firsthand it was maybe a little different to what we expected.

“It was an absolute great crowd and we just need to keep our heads up and focus for the next game.

“We need to start better and tighten up our defence a little. I think the competition has got a lot closer in over the years so there is every opportunity for us to win the next four games and go through to the quarters, semis and hopefully final,” he said.

There were no surprises that the match delivered a very physical game, with the Brazilians making it tough for the Aussies to capitalise on any opportunities.

Australia will need to regroup ahead of the next match up on Monday 8 August, 1:00pm (local) where they will face powerhouse Hungary at Maria Lenk.

Match statistics
Final score: BRA 8 AUS 7
Quarter scores (BRA-AUS): 3-2, 2-1, 2-2, 1-2
AUS Goal Scorers: Cotterill (2) Campbell (2) Howden (1) Kayes (1) Younger (1)