One hundred percent records remain intact for Poland, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Scotland after day two of the II-A and II-B men’s Championships as the chase for top spot continues to heat up.
II-A, Walcz
Poland, Italy and Austria all continued their 100% records in Walcz to advance their aspirations for first place at potential qualification for the Junior World Cup.
For Austria, they won well against Lithuania 6-1. It took until the 22nd minute for Erik Schiesser to break the deadlock; three minutes later, Maximilian Kelner converted a stroke and Josef Winkler added the third goal just before half-time.
Maximilian Meisel added the next corner in the 36th minute before Povilas Sinkevičius got one back with his fifth goal of the tournament.
Austria replied well, however, with Meisel and Winkler both scoring their second goals.
In a game affected by a lot of cards, Italy prevailed 4-0 against Luxembourg, making it two wins from two without conceding a single goal.
Jonas Carelli started the ball rolling, Valerio Iossa and Giacomo Palombi added two more before half-tieme and then Carelli closed out the result with three minutes to go.
The third game of the day was a nervous affair as the hosting Poles won out 3-2 against Ukraine.
It looked set to be comfortable following a brilliant first half performance in which Jakub Hołosyniuk scored a stroke and Marcin Kuźba and Henryk Wolsztyński were also on the mark as they built a 3-0 lead.
Ukraine kept fighting and corner goals from both captain Dmytro Hrubyi and – in the final minute – Vladyslav Cherniuk cut the gap to the minimum.
Day three on Wednesday sees a big showdown to start the day with Italy facing Austria at 14.30 CET; Ukraine meet Lithuania at 16.45 CET and Luxembourg take on Poland at 19.00 CET.
Pool A
| Rank | Team | Played | Wins | Draws | Losses | Goal Difference | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Austria | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 6 |
| 2 | Poland | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 6 |
| 3 | Italy | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6 |
| 4 | Ukraine | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -2 | 0 |
| 5 | Lithuania | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -14 | 0 |
| 6 | Luxembourg | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -17 | 0 |
II-B, Lausanne
An outstanding second half performance from Switzerland saw them run up their second win of the week in Lausanne and build a three-point lead at this early stage of the competition.
They trailed Czechia 2-0 at half-time to Vojtěch Janů and Jan Trejbal goals but a blistering run of three goals in five minutes – between minute 34 and 39 – change the complexion of the game.
Loris Grandchamp was the key man once again, scoring the first and third, with Jens Flück getting the one in between.
Josef Toms equalised to make it 3-3 going into the final quarter but Léonard Kraxner and Ben Gasser scoring in quick succession for 5-3 success.
Scotland, meanwhile, opened their account with goals by Jack Adams; Ben Galloway; Jedd Campbell and Tommy Austin proving too much for Finland, 4-0.
In a close first half, lovely work on the baseline evoked a slick exchange which was finished off by Adams into the bottom left corner for 1-0.
In the second half, Galloway doubled Scotland’s lead with a beautiful drag flick into the bottom left corner.
Campbell supplied Scotland’s third with a carbon copy of Galloway’s strike before Austin completed the scoring from a 45 degree angle, unleashing a reverse stick strike into the bottom right corner for 4-0.
Head Coach Gavin Byers said: “We’re off to a good start. We would have liked to have scored more goals, as we created lots of chances, but the performance was good and we’ll look to improve our conversion rate as we progress.”
Pool A
| Rank | Team | Played | Wins | Draws | Losses | Goal Difference | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Switzerland | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 |
| 2 | Czechia | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| 3 | Scotland | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 |
| 4 | Wales | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -4 | 0 |
| 5 | Finland | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -10 | 0 |
