Ireland produced a big win to put themselves right back in the frame for a potential semi-final spot from Pool B of the women’s EuroHockey U21 Championship in Valencia.
They defeated Wales 5-0 while Germany stormed back from 2-0 down to draw with Belgium, results which leave one point covering the top three sides ahead of Wednesday’s final set of group games.
The junior green army recorded their biggest margin of victory in Euro U21 women’s competition since 2014 as they won 5-0 against Wales as their corner precision set them on their way.
Rebekah Lennon scored from their first PC with a low push to the right corner and Maedbh Le Roux produced a carbon-copy moments after Q2 started.
Isobel Field finished off a super passing move for 3-0 at half-time; Le Roux made it three goals from four corners with a similar push down the right channel in the second half.
And the scoring was completed by Hollaí Quinn with a powerful backhand shot in the 41st minute. That made it their biggest win since a 7-0 success in Championship II in 2014 when future stars like Ayeisha McFerran, Róisín Upton and Katie Mullan were all in the side.
In game two, Belgium went in front when Lena Schoepp drove brilliantly at the heart of the German defence before flipping the ball into the path of Romanie Verhaeghe who drifted right and then fired home a shot.
And Hélène Delva had them in dreamland before the end of the first quarter when she latched onto the ball after Chloé Delhalle’s approach work; a rocket of a backhand made it 2-0.
It stayed that way until the third quarter when Germany started to come back strong, Franziska Pabsch’s hitting the backboard for the second game in succession from her side’s first penalty corner.
They also hit the underside of the bar in this spell while red panther Lisl Denef went within centimetres of restoring the two-goal gap with a corner move but the Germans were making most of the plat as time wore on.
And their reward came with six minutes to go as Jessica Schwarz’s speculative ball into the circle got the perfect touch from Ella Förtsch dropping in unannounced from the left of the circle.
Germany then went in search of a winner with Förtsch going extremely close with just three seconds showing on the clock, leaving both sides to settle for a point.
It leaves both sides on four points and needing to get something from their last group games on Wednesday to advance to the semi-finals. Germany play Wales at 12.00 (CEST) and Ireland play Belgium at 12.20.
Pool A, meanwhile, will be completed when the Netherlands face Scotland (20.00 CEST) and Spain play England at 20.20.
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