Men’s EuroHockey U21 Championship II-B – Plzen Litice, Czechia (July 28th to August 1st)
Pool A: Czechia, Scotland, Türkiye, Wales
Men’s EuroHockey U21 Championship II-B returns to Plzen Litice for the third time since 2019 as Czechia, Scotland, Türkiye and Wales lock horns.
The prize from this four-team tournament is promotion to the top tier in 2028 along with a place at the 2027 Junior World Cup. It will be played in an initial four-team group with the top two advancing to Saturday’s final where it will be winner-takes-all.
For the Czech hosts, they are looking to qualify for the top division for the first time since 2006 having spent the majority of the last 30 years in the second tier.
They have six players competing in their second Euro U21 campaign and a number who are already making their mark internationally.
František Toms (pictured), Štěpán Šmíd and Jonáš Lupač form a strong trio from the Czech senior team while Otakar Gerlický impressed in the EHL and EuroHockey Indoor Club Cup in recent times.
They will look to use home comforts to their advantage but do face some well-known and formidable rivals with the Scots and Wales whom they met in 2024 in Lausanne.
Notably, Scotland can call upon a number of the players who helped their senior side qualify for EuroChamps27 earlier this month in Rome.
Chief among them will be goalkeeper Calum Douglas and Surbiton club mate Tommy Austin as well as Jamie Green who had a break-out tournament in the qualifiers, scoring some classy goals.
Beyond them, the squad draws heavily on the University of Edinburgh side that won the Scottish title this season to qualify for the EHL. In addition to Green, Angus Millar, Drew Lobb, Joshua Love, Kyle Flockhart, Ollie Wilson and Sam Hunt all play for the Peffermill club.
Wales appear to be at a different phase in their development with just three of their players back for a second Euro U21s with captain Tomos Williams making his debut.
As such, the likes of Patrick Cradden, Harry Davies and Sebastian Hibbard will take on leadership roles to impart their experiences from their fourth place finish in Lausanne two years ago.
Their last appearance in the top division in Europe at this level was in 2012 in Den Bosch with their best performance since being a third in Championship II in 2022 when Plzen was also the host venue.
By contrast, nine of the Turkish side return from their formative Under-21 top division experience in 2024 when they found the going tough in Terrassa.
And there is also a healthy link to their senior team who played in the qualifiers in Rome such as Abdulsamet Keleş, Mehmet Aydin, Cihan Korkmaz goalkeeper Muhammad Birekul, Ertuğrul Yilmaz and Zeynel Öz.
Öz is a strong goalscoring option as is Aydin who scored three times in the top division.
They have a good record against the Czechs and the Welsh whom they beat in 2022 to earn promotion back then while their tie with Scotland will be a first between the teams in this competition.
** Click here for further stats and details about the players and the tournament
