Men’s EuroHockey Championship III (Kirklareli, Türkiye) – day three round-up
Ukraine and Türkiye carried their group stage form into the semi-finals to record comfortable wins, setting up a Saturday final showdown at the men’s EuroHockey Championship III in Kirklareli.
Semi-finals
Ukraine 5 Lithuania 0
Maksym Onofriiuk and Oleksandr Solomianyi shared the goals for Ukraine as they defeated Lithuania to make it 39 goals in four games thus far this week.
Solomianyi opened the scoring in the sixth minute, followed by Onofriiuk’s first before the end of Q1. And the victory was confirmed with three goals in four minutes in Q3 which put the result out of reach for Lithuania, Onofriiuk scoring a hat trick while Solomianyi got the other.
Türkiye 13 Bulgaria 0
Türkiye proved far too strong for Bulgaria in the second semi-final as the hosts made it four emphatic wins from four in Kirklareli. Captain Ali Akin Özkiliç top scored with five as three goals in quick succession in the first quarter set the tone for the result.
Mehmet Aydin, Ramazan Kayar, Celal Aydin, Müslüm Ekinci and Zeynel Öz were also among the goals.
Pool C
Hungary 2 Finland 3
Emil Könönen’s double helped Finland win their first game of the tournament as they held off the challenge of Hungary. Santer Määttänen broke the deadlock with Könönen making it 2-0 in Q2.
András Hortobágyi halved the gap before half-time but Könönen’s second with 12 minutes got the Finns out of range in spite of Sebastian Leber’s late response.
Malta 7 Luxembourg 0
Luke Bajada’s hat trick helped Malta record their second win of the week and put them in pole position to win fifth place. Keith Bajada and Luke Borg Costanzi gave Malta a dream start with two goals in the first 13 minutes and they built on that through Q2 and Q3 for a strong victory. They now need a draw or better against Finland to take fifth while Luxembourg play Hungary in what looks to be a playoff for seventh spot.
| Rank | Team | Pl | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Malta | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | Finland | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| 3 | Luxembourg | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 1 |
| 4 | Hungary | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 0 |
Saturday schedule
| Time | Teams | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 08:30 | MLT – FIN | Pool C |
| 10:45 | LUX – HUN | Pool C |
| 13:00 | LTU – Loser 16 | 3rd/4th Place |
| 15:15 | UKR – Winner 16 | Final |
