European champions Spain have proved too strong for Australia, beating the Sharks 9-5 in men's Olympic water polo.
Australia made an encouraging start in their opening Group B game on Sunday despite Spain taking the early lead, maintaining pressure and only trailing by one late in the first half.
But a goal on halftime to Spain, then two more early in the second half, snapped the Australian challenge.
Alberto Munarriz starred for Spain with a hat-trick from his five shots and was taken out late when it was clear the game was done.
The Sharks were punished on Spanish counter-attacks, conceding three goals, but Australian goalkeeper Nic Porter was solid and saved six shots.
"We're pretty disappointed with the result. The performance was probably better than the result suggests and it doesn't reflect the quality in our team," Porter said
While the loss gives Australia plenty to think about, Spain were also far from their best.
They only converted three of their nine extra-player opportunities, while the Australians scored two from their seven.
Angus Lambie and Milos Maksimovic scored two goals apiece for Australia and Jacob Mercep scored the other.
"We wanted to set the tone for the rest of the Olympic series. It’s a very tough loss and a disappointing loss, but I think there are still a lot of positives we can take from it," Lambie said.
"We've got 10 debutants here, so you’ve kind of got to rip in and get that first experience out of the way, so you can kind of get used to these Games.
"We didn't execute the game plan 100 per cent. We need to go back to the drawing board, tweak a few things ... a lot of (Spain's) goals came from our poor decisions in attack."
Spain have won bronze at the last two world championships after winning the 2022 title.
They have not won an Olympic medal since claiming gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
The Sharks finished second-last in their group at the Tokyo Olympics.
Pool A in Paris also features men's water polo powers Hungary and Serbia, Australia's next opponents on Tuesday.
