Poland’s fairytale year continued as they defied the world rankings to win the men’s EuroHockey Championship Qualifier in Dublin, beating Wales 2-1 in the final.
It followed the world number 28 side’s elimination of hosts Ireland in a shoot-out as they came from a goal down with Tomasz Bembenek’s corner in the 51st minute making the difference.
The qualification is their first for the top division since 2017 and it adds to the EuroHockey Indoor Championship silver medal and EuroHockey 5s gold.
Wales made most of the early inroads and they went in front in the first quarter via a Ben Francis penalty stroke after a couple of close-run chances.
Poland, though, showed their ability to dig deep throughout the competition and they kept things tight with their awesome defence, meaning it remained at the minimum gap through to half-time.
And, as time wore on, they started to get the better quality of chance through the second half, picking up openings from both play and corners.
They were back level in the 37th minute through Robert Pawlak’s drag-flick and then the Poles went in front from their next corner with nine minutes to go.
Either side of that winner, goalkeeper Mateusz Popiolkowski produced a series of heroics while his corner defensive team charged down a couple of set pieces in the last two minutes to spark wild celebrations.
Shane O’Donoghue scored for Ireland in what was to be his last international match, leading the way in a 4-0 success over Czechia.
He announced his retirement before the game and duly added to his Irish goalscoring record, his 125th in 242 appearances for the Green Machine, in the first quarter.
Alistair Empey doubled the lead in the second half for his seventh goal of the tournament before Lee Cole made it 3-0 from a corner. Louis Rowe added a fourth for a comfortable win from an otherwise low-key game.
Italy completed the line-up for next summer’s EuroHockey Championship II as they eventually pulled away from Türkiye, all the goals coming in the second half of a 5-1 result.
The deadlock was broken when Felix Dionisi Vici volleyed in a cross from Franco Harte in Q3. Luca Valentino’s stroke was counteracted by a Müslüm Elagoz corner; Manuel Mondo’s corner, however, put Italy out to 3-1 ahead.
Franco Harte and Dario Saoncella both scored in the last 55 seconds to add extra gloss to the scoreboard.
Malta grabbed their first win of the weekend with Tom Degiovanni’s hat trick helping them to defeat Luxembourg 4-0 and earn seventh place overall.
He got the first in Q2 from a corner and another corner and a stroke made it 3-0. Julian Zahra got the pick of the goals just before the end of the fourth quarter, spinning to finish off from Luke Bajada’s reverse-stick ball into the danger zone.
| 09:15 | Luxembourg v Malta | 7th/8th place | 0 – 4 |
| 11:30 | Türkiye v Italy | 5th/6th place | 1 – 5 |
| 13:45 | Ireland v Czechia | 3rd/4th place | 4 – 0 |
| 16:00 | Poland v Wales | Final | – |
Final rankings
- Poland
- Wales
- Ireland
- Czechia
- Italy
- Türkiye
- Malta
- Luxembourg
** Watch back on the games from the event on www.eurohockeytv.org
