Belgium coach Maxi Garreta hopes his side will bring together the right blend of elements as they return to the top level of women’s EuroHockey Indoor Championship competition.

It is a side with lots of young stars making their bow with Ophelie Vincent (age 20), Noah Horbach (21), Luka van Vossole (20) and Fleur Verboven (21) all making their international debuts as will the 29-year-old Natasha Rootenberg.

At the other end of the spectrum, leading international umpire Laurine Delforge captains the team and is the most experienced player with 40 caps and going into her fifth European championship as player.

Marie Ronquetti is also going into a fifth campaign and played at this level in 2020 when they finished in seventh place in Minsk.

For Garetta, he says he is hopeful of going one better this time: “Our ambition is to create a new team that can achieve a good result in Berlin.

“The main aim is to stay up in Euro A, and then aim for the top six places that will guarantee qualification for the next World Cup.

“This year, with the arrival of a number of new players, we’ve worked a lot on fast play, defensive discipline and aggression in the game. We want to have a team that dares to play and be a real force on the pitch.”

** 28 of the games will be streamed live from Berlin on www.eurohockeytv.org

** To find out more about the stats, fixtures and teams, click here: https://tms.fih.ch/competitions/1551