Poland’s men completed an amazing day for the country’s 5s teams, adding to their women’s earlier EuroHockey Championship success in Walcz as well as their Under-16 girls in Zagreb.

Add in a boys Under-16 bronze and it made for an immaculate day for them. Their men led from start to finish against Ukraine in their final, eventually prevailing 3-2 after a spirited closing phase to the decider from Ukraine.

All three of the Polish goals were beauties – captain Jacek Kurowksi set them on their way with a long range sweep from just inside his own half to make it 1-0.

Eryk Bembenek added the next with a top corner reverse-stick shot – his 15^th goal of the competition. And they were three to the good three minutes into the second half from Jakub Hołosyniuk with probably the pick of the bunch, a diving backhand shot that hit the roof of the goal.

Ukraine scored twice in the last 110 seconds, both from Bohdan Kovalenko challenges – first flicking in on his backhand and then going more direct to push into the bottom right corner.

The latter came with just 12 seconds left leaving not enough time to go to try and snatch an unlikely comeback.

It meant Poland rose from the third rung of the podium in 2022 to the top step this year and an unforgettable day for the home nation in Walcz..

Switzerland produced a perfect set of shoot-outs to win the bronze medal ahead of Italy after normal time ended 2-2.

Italy led twice with Mattia Amorosini’s second minute goal getting the ball rolling for 1-0 and Alberto Ughetto making it 2-1 at half-time, countering Fabio Reinhard’s first of the game.

Reinhard struck once more with three minutes left to earn the draw and the shoot-out chance where he, again, was on the mark. Elias Brönnimann and Sandro Reinhard both also scored while Stephan Müller kept out Simone Pagliara’s second round shoot-out which was ultimately decisive.

Czechia were the fifth place finishers with an 8-5 win over Türkiye as they scored the last three goals of the game to make the difference.

Captain Lukas Plochý got two of those lates ones to add to doubles from Krystof Bodnar and Jakub Griebl.

Lithuania took seventh spot with a 5-4 win over Sweden. Rafal Stankevič was the hero with his goals in the 28^th and 30^th minutes winning the contest.

Final rankings

1. Poland
2. Ukraine
3. Switzerland
4. Italy
5. Czechia
6. Türkiye
7. Lithuania
8. Sweden
9. Finland
10. Cyprus

Today’s results:

Time	Teams	Title	Score
08:30	LTU – SWE	7th/8th place	5 – 4 (3 – 3)
09:15	SUI – ITA	3rd/4th place	2 – 2 (1 – 2) (3 – 2 SO)
11:30	CZE – TUR	5th/6th place	8 – 5 (3 – 2)
13:45	POL – UKR	Final	3 – 2 (2 – 0)

Watch all the games back on www.eurohockeytv.org

For results and pools click here