Women’s EuroHockey U21 Championship (Valencia, Spain) – day five round-up
Ivet Marti’s nerves of steel helped Spain set up a repeat of the women’s EuroHockey U21 Championship final against the Netherlands.
She scored to keep her side in a shoot-out against Belgium in their semi-final before scoring once more in sudden death to spark massive scenes of celebrations.
It was a spectacular end to a cracking contest in which the young red panthers led twice but the Spanish spirit came back strong over and over again.
Fee Van Den Abeele gave Belgium the dream start with a fifth minute opening goal with a sharp near post finish from Lena Schoepp’s rapid run down the right baseline.
Natalia Vilanova equalised with the first play of the second half, a remarkable passage of play in which the Spanish held the ball for the first 45 seconds after the restart with the striker crisply striking home.
Carlota Alvarez made a series of fine stops but Belgium returned to the front with six minutes to go from a penalty stroke scored by Agathe Favart.
It only last a minute as Spain also got a stroke which Carmen Fernandez fired into the roof. So to the shoot-out where Belgium took the initial advantage but were pegged back to 3-3 when Alvarez saved crucially and Marti hit the perfect backhand shot to start the celebrations.
Earlier, the Netherlands produced a perfect performance to advance to the final of the competition for the 18th time as they defeated Germany 4-0.
It was mainly built around an Imke Verstraeten hat trick, scoring two strokes and a corner while Veere ter Horst finished off one of the goals of the tournament to make it 3-0.
They had to bide their time in the first half as Germany defended well and repelled a trio of corners in the first quarter but Verstraeten landed the first blow from the fourth set piece early in Q2.
Germany forged some good chances during this quarter but Phileine Hazen and Juul Sauer on the line – with two brilliant stops – kept the lead in tact.
The second half, though, was a bit of Dutch dominance as they camped in the German and got their reward when another Verstraeten drag was blocked on the line by a body; the Amsterdam player stepped up to score the resulting stroke.
Ter Horst made it 3-0 when she got on the end of a full-pitch team move as the Dutch raced down the right, to the baseline and then back for a swept finish. Verstraten added another stroke to rubber-stamp the win.
In Pool C, England qualified for the Junior World Cup with a 4-3 win over Ireland, holding off an intense fightback from the Irish in the closing quarter.
Goals from Mia Moore, Liv Breed, Sofia Martin and Biba Mills had them seemingly out of sight with 13 minutes to go but Rebekah Lennon, Milla Fulton and Hollai Quinn scored in quick succession to set nerves jangling.
But the win is enough to assure England of their return to the World Cup and a place in 2028’s Euro U21s.
Scotland then fought back from 2-0 and 3-2 down against Wales to keep their tournament alive. Nancy Whittlestone and Samantha Digby-Duell had the dragons two up at half-time but Ava Wadsworth and Mhairi Low cancelled that advantage by the end of Q3.
Eloise Moat restored the Welsh lead early in the final quarter but Wadsworth replied once more for 3-3. The Scots thought they had won it in the closing seconds but the effort was disallowed, leaving both sides on one point and needing a Saturday win to have a chance at staying up.
* Click here for further stats and details about the players and the tournament
** 24 EuroHockey U21 Championship matches from Pitch 1 in Valencia will be broadcast live on www.eurohockeytv.org with an €8.99 event pass (Click the graphic for more information)
