Men’s EuroHockey U21 Championship II-A (Poznań, Poland) – July 27th to August 1st
Pool A: Croatia, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine
Poznań’s Politechnic Univeristy is the venue for the men’s EuroHockey U21 Championship II-A where promotion to the top division in 2028 and one place at next year’s Junior World Cup is on the line.
The format is a straight round-robin tournament with each of the six nations playing each other once with the winner of the group taking the big prizes.
For hosts Poland, the terrain is well known to them with 11 of their panel playing for clubs in the Poznań region with either Grunwald, Warta or AWF while four play with Poznań University.
** Click here to follow the live scores from the event
Mateusz Zieliński helped KS Pomorzanin Toruń to Polish and Euro club success during the last season and he scored twice in two recent strong wins over Czechia in preparation for this event.
Emil Witczak – who plays with Grossflotbeker THGC in Germany – is the most experienced outfeild player, going into his third outdoor Under-21 championship. Goalkeeper Maksymilian Pawlak, meanwhile, is also in his third Euros and has been the Polish senior understudy at several events including the Indoor World Cup in 2025 and two Euro indoor championships.
Ireland have the most recent form guide having finished in tenth place in the Junior World Cup last December – beating Canada, Switzerland and South Africa along the way – and they 13 from that contingent to draw on again.
Goalkeepers James Coffey and Sam Chapman both return as do defenders Ryan Williams, Toby Slye O’Connell, Ben Walker and Jamie Horgan.
Across midfield, Alfie Lequesne and Noa Mulvey are in situ as are Milo Thompson and John Cunningham who helped Lisnagarvey to a national treble last season.
Sam Dale and Matthew McKee provide forward threats and they come into the competition having own series against Scotland and France earlier this year.
Italy will be keen to emulate their recent senior success to qualify for the top tier. Theirs is quite a new look team with just six players back for a second campaign following their run to third place in 2024 in Walcz.
There, they defeated Ukraine and Lithuania and drew with Poland 2-2 and so they have decent intel to work on. The 18-year-old Valerio Iossa captains the team and he already has senior experience playing in Championship II in 2025 in Portugal.
For Croatia, this is a specific new experience for the team as they enter Under-21 outdoor competition for the first time since 2006. Nonetheless, there are plenty of players who are well accustomed to European competition.
Ivan Soić was part of the Indoor World Cup side in 2025 and he netted twice in the EuroHockey Championship qualifiers in 2024 with a powerful corner in his armoury.
And Karlo Perković, Bruno Rubeša, Andrej Zidanić and Noa Matošević are all eligible from the team that took bronze at the recent EuroHockey Championship qualifiers with wins over Switzerland and Portugal.
Lithuania are powered by the goalscoring prowess of Povilas SInkevičius – the numbers include 12 goals in nine Under-21 caps and 20 in 21 senior outdoor internationals.
They also have plenty of gametime together under their belt with several of the panel playing in the Champions II qualifiers in Helinski last month. Chief among them are captain Andžej Burkot, Džiugas Dikšas, Danielius Petkevič, Robert Milevič and Dominykas Vaikenas.
They finished fifth out of six two years ago but still managed to run up 17 goals in five games – including a 14-5 loss to Poland and 7-4 to Italy – so expect fireworks.
Ukraine, meanwhile, lean on the experience of Oleksandr Boiko and Serhii Riabchuk who are in their third Under-21 cycle. Both were also part of the senior squad who played in the EuroHockey Championship qualifier along with Vitalii Semniushko.
Boiko’s corner prowess helped yield him four goals in the equivalent tournament in 2024 where they pushed Italy (1-0) and Poland (3-2) all the way.
