Germany will face Czechia in the women’s EuroHockey Indoor Championship final as this stunning tournament in Prague reaches its climax on Sunday at 14.40 CET.
It follows two semi-final shoot-outs with the Germans – going for three in-a-row – winning an epic battle with Spain in a shoot-out; Czechia looked dead and buried against Austria before scoring twice in the last 45 seconds and won a shoot-out for an incredible win.
Germany scrape into semi-finals
In the morning session, Germany also survived an almighty scare to keep their immaculate record in the women’s EuroHockey Indoor Championship, going through to the final four along with Austria, Spain and Czechia at the UNYP Arena in Prague.
Germany produced an outstanding second half performance to overcome Belgium 5-3, roaring back from 3-0 at half-time to ensure they continue their record of always reaching the final four.
The red panthers made the most of their opportunities in the first half with Clarie Barry and Margaux Coudron scoring from their first two attacks and Hélène Delva made it three from another corner.
Germany had dominated most of the play but could not score from their first five corners, leaving them under pressure. But they stormed back in the second half, taking out their goalkeeper at the big break and it paid instant dividends.
Charlotte Gerstenhöfer’s cross took a lucky deflection to get them on the scoreboard then she added another to equalise from a corner after Philine Drumm had reduced reduce the deficit.
Maike Scheuer made it 4-3 before their goalkeeper returned and they were able to keep Belgium at bay in the closing stages.
The result meant Austria needed to avoid defeat to top the group and advance but Switzerland could deny them if they came up with a big win.
In the end, it was an extremely tight battle with defences on top for the most part. It was scoreless until the 34th minute when Johanna Buctleitner broke the deadlock.
Switzerland levelled for 1-1 in the last few minutes, meaning they ended the group in fourth place and move into the 5th to 8th place playoffs.
In Pool B, Poland needed a win over Ukraine to have a chance to advance to the semis but it was their opponent who produced their strongest performance to date.
Karyna Leonova and Kateryna Popova both scored from their first two corners in Q1 to give them a strong advantage and it stayed that way until the final minute. Leonova scored twice more to extend their advantage out to 4-0.
It means Poland end fourth in the group and will now face Belgium while Ukraine are in third and play Switzerland on Saturday evening.
The group phase finished with Spain and Czechia meeting for top spot in the group with the former coming out on top 5-3. The result means the Spaniards will play Germany in the semi-final while the Czechs face Austria.
Nikol Babická netted twice either side of goals from Bea Perez and Clara Ycart for 2-2 going into the final quarter but the game was decided in Q4 when Marta Grau and Maria Lopez gave the red sticks the upper hand.
Epic semi-finals
In the evening, Germany were first to make it into the final, scraping through after they trailed for long periods in normal time and were on the brink of elimination in a shoot-out but found a way through.
Marta Grau finished off a beautiful team goal for 1-0, a goal cancelled out by a lovely spin-and-roll from Philine Drumm. Clara Ycart put Spain back in front with one of the moments of the tournament, flicking into the top corner from the left baseline off her right foot.
Czechia salute the crowd. Picture: Will Palmer/World Sport Pics
Estel Forte made it 3-1 at half-time with another classy assist and shot; it meant the Germans repeated their morning method of removing their goalkeeper at half-time and their press worked immediately.
Charlotte Gerstenhöfer got one back soon after the break but Spain settled well and restored the two-goal gap from a penalty stroke from Grau; 4-2 going into Q4.
But Germany are masters of such scenarios and got three goals in quick succession via Maike Scheuer, Gerstenhöfer and Drumm, turning it into a 5-4 lead. Sara Carmona levelled, though, and Germany needed to shut down a series of corners in the last few minutes for a shoot-out chance.
There, they led 2-1 and had the ball in the net once more but, after an umpire’s consultation, Grau’s effort was ruled out for an earlier foot.
And the Germans won out as captain Fenja Poppe slotted in her shoot-out in the second round of sudden death.
The second semi-final had similar dose of madness as Austria looked well set for a place in the final all the way up until the final minute.
Johanna Buchleitner calmly slotted in from the left of the circle to give the red foxes the lead in the 16th minute and they were two up via a Johanna Czech penalty corner in Q3, dodging to her right and flicking in.
And that was how it stayed until 45 seconds from the end when Nikol Babická got a brilliant touch to a crash ball. Czechia scarcely celebrated as they reset straight away and worked an opening down the right and Veroniká Přibíková twisted behind her back and flicked in.
In the shoot-out, Austria also took the lead but Barbora Čecháková saved twice while Natálie Nováková and Kateřina Laciná both scored to spark the celebrations in the hall.
Earlier, in the fifth to eighth place playoffs, Belgium and Ukraine got wins over Poland and Switzerland, respectively.
The red panthers were 2-1 victors; Amelia Katerla slotted home the first goal after a turnover in the Belgian D but pin-point penalty corners from Marie Ronquetti and France De Mot scored in the 15th and 17th minutes and that was the end of the scoring.
Ukraine, meanwhile, withstood a late fightback to defeat Switzerland 5-3. They had raced into a 4-0 lead in the first half with Karyna Leonova scoring twice and they carried that advantage up to the 33rd minute.
The Swiss roared back with three goals in quick succession but a reply from Olha Honcharenko made the result safe for Ukraine.
