The Australian women’s water polo team has suffered an agonising loss to Spain to bow out in the semi-finals of the World Aquatics Championships in Japan.

The Aussie Stingers went down 10-8 to the Tokyo Olympic silver medallists on Wednesday, and will now focus their attention on their bronze medal battle with European giants Italy on Friday.

Despite trailing by three goals at the end of the first quarter, the Aussies showed their grit and won the second quarter 4-2 to trail 8-6 at half-time.

Both teams scored two goals each in the final two quarters as the Stingers came up just short in their bid to play for the gold medal.

Italy will come into the match with a high level of confidence after defeating reigning Olympic and world champions USA in the earlier cross over stages.

The last time the Stingers played for a medal at the world championships was in Gwangju in 2019, when they secured the victory and took home bronze.

Stingers head coach Paul Oberman said he was proud of his team’s efforts.

“It was a tough game, Spain is a very good team. We had a slow start allowing their shooters to get into the game,” he said.

“I was proud of the efforts we put in to fight back, but unfortunately it wasn’t our day.

“We won the last three quarters 8-7. Our team has the ability and with experiences like this we will continue to improve.

“We are looking forward to the next game and the challenge of playing Italy in the bronze medal game.”