Hosts Poland will face Austria in a straight showdown for the women’s EuroHockey U21 Indoor Championship title on Sunday in Wałcz after their Saturday performances.
Austria picked off two hard-fought wins, first seeing off Switzerland 4-1 and then holding their nerve in the face of a huge Türkiye challenge, winning 4-2.
Against the Swiss, Anna Hackl got the only goal of the first half before the Austrians eventually pulled away with a hat trick from Katharina Proksch.

Against the Turks, it was an emotional tussle with lots of passion on display. The sides traded goals to be level at 2-2 going into the final five minutes; Austria’s corner defence proved vital as they defended several efforts before Amelie Minar and a last minute stroke from Philippa Proksch settled the game.
That lifted them to four wins from four, a mark Poland also achieved by defeating Italy in the morning 6-5 and then proving too strong for Croatia in the evening.
The former was a wild contest; Italy led at the start and a trio of goals from Eleonora di Paola equalised at 4-4 with seven minutes to go. Key goals from Marta Czujewicz and Hanna Wochna gave the Poles the points.
Against Croatia, Poland were always in control with three first half goals giving them a healthy advantage and they kept chasing the nine-goal win they needed to top the group on goal difference. It arrived in a flurry of three goals in the last few minutes, Julia Rymer lifting the clinching effort to make it 10-1.
The two sides meet at 12.25 CET with Poland needing a draw while Austria require victory to edge the title on goal difference.
The battle for bronze is also incredibly close. Türkiye’s 9-3 win over Croatia has them in third place on four points with a goal difference of +3.
Five of those came in the first quarter with Gülcan Paksoy top-scoring with three goals.
Italy picked off an excellent 3-1 win against Switzerland to move onto four points, too, but with a goal difference of 0.
Again di Paola was a central figure, scoring two in the first half; Dunja Härtsch gave Switzerland a chance with a corner goal but Maria Torbol’s rocket and an Elena Picano save earned Italy the points.
Italy face Croatia at 9.35 CET while Switzerland – on three points – face Türkiye at 11.00 CET.
Saturday results
10:00 | CRO – TUR | Pool A | 3 – 9 |
11:25 | SUI – AUT | Pool A | 1 – 4 |
12:50 | POL – ITA | Pool A | 6 – 5 |
16:00 | TUR – AUT | Pool A | 2 – 4 |
17:25 | ITA – SUI | Pool A | 3 – 1 |
18:50 | POL – CRO | Pool A | 10 – 1 |
Sunday fixtures