Day 2 of the European Qualifiers got underway in Cardiff today.
Today was all about World Ranking points as the teams who lost their quarter-finals yesterday had to consider taking as much as possible from the next two games.
Match 5: Poland v Scotland 2-10
A very impressive Scotland scored at will today after the gut-wrenching loss to Austria yesterday on shoot-out.
Coach Derek Forsyth spoke about how proud he is of his team following their loss yesterday “We were very pleased with the performance after yesterday’s huge disappointment, the boys showed great character. We came into the game and controlled it, even after going 1-0 down. Now, it’s onto the next one!”
Full game stats here: https://tms.fih.ch/matches/15454
Match 6: Russia v Italy 4-3
A last-minute goal from Pavel Golubev saw Russia just piping Italy to the post and take the win in the 5th/8th second-ranking game of the day.
Goalscorer Pavel said of getting ready for the game today after yesterday’s defeat to Ireland “The guys have a strong will, we spoke together and worked on our mistakes from yesterday’s game. Three players arrived last night, so we spoke about playing more aggressively and correcting our mistakes. We are very happy to win, even at the last minute. They have really improved over the last few years since we played them last time. Now we will prepare for the game against Scotland. Our physio will be busy to prepare us!”
Full game stats here: https://tms.fih.ch/matches/15455
Tomorrow’s games:
All games will be live-streamed on www.eurohockeytv.org
Photograph: Scotland celebrates! (EHF / Irfon Bennett)
