Austria delighted their home crowd as they landed a 3-1 win over Ukraine in Vienna, securing their place at the men’s EuroHockey Championships next summer into the bargain.
It came from a perfect first five minutes in which they netted twice with Franz Lindengrun and Peter Kaltenböck on the mark.
The first was a classic counter-attack with Ukraine pressing high but they were caught out and Lindengrun was allowed almost the whole half to himself to bear down on goal and slip home a clever finish.
From their next attack, the first wave of attacks was held up but the clearance fell only as far as Kaltenböck who slammed home a backhand shot.
And they were firmly in dreamland when Leon Thörnblom’s beautiful stick-skills eventually led to a stroke in the 16th minute, one which Fülöp Losonci scored for his 10th goal of the weekend.
Ukraine kept fighting and got their reward with six minutes to go through Andrii Koshelenko’s direct drag-flick to reduce the deficit but it was not enough to change the course of the contest.
Scotland took third place in the final match of the competition with a 10-2 win over Portugal, underpinned by four goals from Struan Walker.
Two of those came in the first quarter as – in conjunction with a Cameron Golden strike – the Scots went 3-1 up. Walker completed his hat trick in Q2 and they were out of sight in the third quarter via Keir Robb, Ali Douglas and Jamie Golden.
Switzerland took the last place on offer at next year’s EuroHockey Championship II as they withstood a barrage of penalty corners from Croatia – 17 in total – to win 3-1, ending in fifth place overall.
They led from the ninth minute from a Boris Stomps goal and continued to be in good shape when Loris Grandchamp scored his sixth goal of the weekend.
Josip Krleža pulled one back but Elias Brönnimann ensured the Swiss had a two-goal half-time advantage, 3-1 in the 25th minute. Croatia had most of the second half play but could not force home the advantage – including missing a stroke – and so had to settle for sixth spot.
Povilas Sinkevičius scored five times in the final quarter for Lithuania – out of a personal tally of six – to see them defeat Hungary 7-2. It gave the final scoreline a lopsided look but it was tight going into the final quarter at 2-2 after Sebastian Leber and Norbert Kovacs scored in the third quarter. That result gave Lithuania seventh place overall with Hungary ending in eighth spot, both destined for Championship III next summer.
Today’s results
| 09:15 | Lithuania v Hungary | 7th/8th place | 7 – 2 |
| 11:30 | Croatia v Switzerland | 5th/6th place | 1 – 3 |
| 13:45 | Austria v Ukraine | Final | 3 – 1 |
| 16:00 | Portugal v Scotland | 3rd/4th place | 2 – 10 |
** Watch six of the games from the event back on www.eurohockeytv.org
Final rankings
- Austria
- Ukraine
- Scotland
- Portugal
- Switzerland
- Croatia
- Lithuania
- Hungary
