Men’s EuroHockey U21 Championship (Valencia, Spain) – Pool B round-up

Spain advanced to the men’s EuroHockey U21 Championship semi-final and a date with Germany, dropping England into Pool C despite their lively 3-3 draw with the Netherlands.

The Spanish hosts needed a win against Austria to go through and they were not overly troubled by an opponent who seemed to struggle with the exertions from their draw with the English a day before.

Nicolas Mustaros and Albert Serrahima both scored in the first seven minutes and André Medina added another in Q2.

Pau Gesti scored a stroke and a corner in the second half along with Josep Martin’s tennis-style shot making it over the line, too. Medina’s second made it seven.

It rendered what was happening on the La Carasca pitch moot where England and the Netherlands drew in a cracking encounter.

Samuel Dowds’ rising reverse-stick shot had the English one-up but corner goals from Balder Reyenga and Joppe Wolbert swapped the lead and the latter tacked on a stroke with 10 minutes to go.

No sooner had he done that, Dowds and Ben Walker fired two rapid goals to tie things up but all to no avail.

They go into Pool C with Austria with both sides carrying one point through to games against France and Switzerland on the weekend.

The Dutch, meanwhile, will be up against Belgium in Friday’s semi-final at 10.00 (CEST) and Spain face the Germans at 12.20.

** 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)