Switzerland beat Lithuania 3-1
On the third day of the EuroHockey Junior Championships Men III in Helsinki, the first game was Switzerland against Lithuania. The game started at s high pace both teams trying to get to the opponent’s head with aerial balls.
Switzerland got the first chance to make a goal when the team was awarded a short corner – and took the advantage by scoring, a 1-0 goal by Loris Grandchamp. Six minutes later, Lithuania stroke back and equalized the game to 1-1 when Arnas Ridlauskas hit a confident shot to the bottom left corner from a short corner. Lithuania got the first green card at the end of the first quarter and Switzerland was able to get another short corner. However, the hit failed and there was no goal.
In the second quarter, Switzerland took an even stronger hold on the game. Switzerland’s 2-1 lead goal was scored by Jens Flück from a short corner. Lithuania managed to get a couple of good attacks, but no more goals were seen in the second quarter. In the third quarter, the game focused on spinning in the middle of the field, as both teams’ attacks remained far from the circle.
In the fourth quarter, both teams had many good scoring chances. One more goal was seen, when Switzerland cut off Lithuania’s attack and succeeded in scoring 3-1 from the counterattack.
Lithuania still had an opportunity for a goal from a short corner, but the hit missed the target.
No more goals were seen in the game, although towards the end of the game, Switzerland was able to play with a two-man superiority when the Lithuanians were awarded a green and a yellow card.
With their 3-1 victory, Switzerland secured a place in the final games to be played on Saturday.
Ukraine wins the pool
In their third match, Finland faced Ukraine, who started the game by scoring a goal in the second minute of the game. In the first quarter, the game revolved almost completely only at one end and Ukraine scored two more goals so before the break to make the score 3-0 to Ukraine. Finland showed good performance both in attack and defense and the score stayed 3-0 at halftime.
At the beginning of the third quarter, Ukraine managed to surprise Finland by scoring two goals in a few minutes so the Ukrainians’ lead was 5-0. Finland’s attempts to hit the opponent’s goal remained sluggish and Ukraine did not manage to score any more goals in the quarter although they had quite a few good chances.
In the last quarter, Ukraine picked up the pace. With Finland being awarded two green cards, Ukraine scored a goal and took a 6-0 lead. Ukraine was able to strike twice more in the very final minutes of the game and the final score was 8-0.
Ukraine became the winner of the pool with equal points, but by scoring more field goals ahead of Switzerland. Finland finished last in the series and will face Lithuania in Saturday’s bronze match.
The medal games of the EuroHockey Junior Championships in Finland will be played on Sat July 30 Velodrome in Helsinki. The Finland-Lithuania bronze game will take place at 10:15 and the gold battle between Switzerland and Ukraine from 12:30 p.m.
All games are live streamed and available to watch on demand on www.eurohockeytv.org
Photo: Ville Järvinen (c)
