Women’s EuroHockey Championship Qualifier (Prague, Czechia)
Ukraine will meet Poland while Austria face Czechia on Saturday for a place in EuroChamps27 as they all won through dramatic quarter-finals at the Championship Qualifier in Prague.
The winner of those games will earn a place in Sunday’s final and, crucially, book their ticket to next summer’s showpiece event in London.
First up, a dream first six minutes was enough to put Ukraine on course for a 3-1 win over Switzerland and move them on to the semi-finals.
It took less 75 seconds to get up and running as they improvised well from an off-course penalty corner injection, Kateryna Popova slapping the ball to Olha Honcharenko to deflect in at the right post.
Karyna Leonova doubled up when she used her strength to wrestle possession in the circle and slot in for 2-0 in the sixth minute.
Switzerland recovered from their slow start to turn up the tempo in Q2 and they got one back via Sofie Stomps’ penalty corner.
And it remained that way until 11 minutes from the end when Leonova, once again, popped up with the crucial diving touch to a long ball into the D.
Poland joined them in the next phase as they proved too strong for Croatia on a 3-0 scoreline with a pair of goals within seconds of each other in Q3 doing the damage.
Julia Rymer’s lob-shot in the third minute had given Poland the perfect start and they made most of the play but without further reward with Nadin Lacas making a number of key saves.
That was until the 34th minute when Julia Kucharska guided in a Rymer slap from the corner and less than 30 seconds later, Viktoria Zimmerman cleaned up a corner rebound to extend the lead to three.
Austria fought back from a half-time deficit to defeat Türkiye 5-1 and advance their challenge for a EuroChamps27 spot.
They eventually broke down a young and new look Turkish side who featured seven debutantes but they belied this lack of experience to go 1-0 up through captain Yeter Okumuş. It came from a corner, won against the run of play after Austria had started stronger.
Goalkeeper Evin Yağşi made some great saves during that time to carry them through to half-time but they could not hold on in the third quarter.
Katharina Proksch levelled the game from a corner and it started a theme; injector Marianne Pultar put them in front when a rebound broke her way and another skirmish at a PC fell to Marie Hahnekamp.
Anja Haselsteiner and Laura Kern put them further in the clear in the closing quarter for a deserved win.
Czechia completed the semi-final line-up as Natálie Hájková relieved the tension with a wonderful penalty corner rocket to the roof of the goal to defeat Lithuania.
It came with just eight minutes to go as she finally broke the deadlock against an opponent who defended stubbornly throughout.
The hosts came out of the blocks at pace, creating numerous chances and hitting the outside of the post while Luka Žiaubrytė made a number of saves.
It continued in the same style with the Czechs frustrated by the visiting defence and when they had a potential Natálie Nováková goal disallowed.
But they summoned up a series of corners from which Hájková finally found the net with a super effort.
Friday’s schedule will see the 5th to 8th place ranking matches in action with Switzerland facing Croatia at 15.30 and Türkiye play Lithuania at 17.45.
