The Serbs were beaten three times during the group stage of the competition but came alive in the knockout stage beating Greece and the USA before an impressive display in the gold medal game.

Uros Stevanovic's side were 8-5 up at half-time and never looked in danger of letting their lead slip against the 2012 gold medallists.

"We had our ups and downs. But we are famous for this, we are very hard to beat in the elimination phase. Everybody, I think, underestimated us a little bit because of the results in the group. It happens," said defender Dusan Mandic, who played in all three gold medal winning teams.

“We were prepared for when it was the most important. I think only those of us that were here, the players and the coaches, believed in this. That the gold would happen," he said.

“It's incredible. This is the power of unity. This is the team spirit. This is defence, defence, defence until the end, sacrificing for each other," he said.

Despite the history between the two nations, who fought a war which ended in 1995, there was no hint of tension inside the 15,000 capacity arena.

The players congratulated each other at the end of the game with handshakes and hugs before the Serbian team pushed their coaching staff into the pool.

Croatian goalkeeper Toni Popadic said there was no feeling other than disappointment in their performance.

"It's about the loss, the game is the game, it's not about the traditional (rivals) or anything else. We were close to the goal but we didn't make it, that's it," he said.

Serbia's Nemanja Vico, who narrowly missed out on making the squad for the Tokyo Games, was delighted to have finally got his hands on gold.

"We went through it all in this tournament, from right down to up, I really can't believe that the dream has come true," he said.