Men’s EuroHockey Championship II (Lousada, Portugal) – day six round-up
Final
Ireland 1 Wales 1, Wales win shoot-out 3-1
Wales’ superb shoot-out performance saw them get the best of Ireland to land gold at the men’s EuroHockey Championship II in Lousada, ending a spectacular week on a high.
Ireland had led early thanks to a smart Jeremy Duncan finish but Wales managed to draw level and keep Ireland on level terms to force a penalty shootout.
Welsh keeper Toby Reynolds-Cotterill proved the hero, denying Ireland on three occasions to help Wales to a 3-1 shootout win.
After an early exchange of corners, Ireland went in front when Tim Cross took in an overhead pass and drove along the baseline, finding Jeremy Duncan whose clever flick on his reverse found the side netting to open the scoring.
Ireland were on the up in Q1 but Wales were stronger in Q2 and they got level when they nicked possession in the right corner and worked the ball to Jack Pritchard who swept in first time.
It was incredibly tight from there on with both sides trading chances with no further goals coming with the final set to be decided by a shoot-out.
There, Reynolds-Cotterill kept up Ireland’s first two efforts while Gareth Griffiths and Ben Francis scored to build a 2-0 lead; Daragh Walsh got Ireland on the board but Pritchard scored his while Louis Rowe was denied to give the Dragons the title.
Both sides qualify for the top division in 2027 as well as picking up a 2026 World Cup qualifier spot.
Bronze match
Italy 2 Scotland 5
Struan Walker’s four goals saw Scotland storm back from a big deficit to win 4-2, earning bronze medals and a precious place in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
Italy bossed the latter part of the first quarter to build a 2-0 lead with Geronimo Clement’s goal quickly followed by a Davide Arosio effort, following up on a charged down corner drag-flick.
Scotland regathered in Q2 and had one back from Jamie Golden’s rising corner drag-flick before Struan Walker matched his effort, making it 2-2, and then he fired in a backhand shot to put his side in front for the first time in the second half.
Italy threw everything forward in the closing quarter but were caught out when chasing the game, conceding two penalty strokes which Walker scored to confirm the victory.
Pool C
Czechia 3 Croatia 0
Three strikes in the last 17 minutes earned Czechia the points to finish in fifth place overall with Croatia ending in seventh overall.
Vit Soukup finally broke the deadlock late in Q3 when he finished off a sweeping move down the left from the Czechs created by Kryštof Šesták’s interception. Štěpán Šmíd’s reverse-stick rocket made it 2-0 and then Šesták tidied up the third goal after a series of shots on target.
Switzerland 6 Portugal 5
Loris Grandchamp’s quartet of penalty corner goals helped realise a remarkable Switzerland comeback to recover from 5-3 down with seven minutes to play to win 6-5.
It was a rollercoaster from the start with brothers Laurens and Quentin making it 2-0 to the hosts in the first quarter and Rodrigo Castro extended the lead to three in the 16th minute.
Grandchamp reeled in some of that deficit with his first two corners before half-time but they went 4-2 behind in Q3 to a Joaquin Leonel Coelho goal. Lorenz Gassner and Castro exchanged goals to advance the score to 5-3 but Grandchamp fired in twice to level the game before Matthias Mohrhauer got the winner in the closing moments.
| Rank | Team | Pl | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Czechia | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 7 |
| 2 | Switzerland | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 10 | 5 |
| 3 | Croatia | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 4 |
| 4 | Portugal | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 11 | 0 |
Top goalscorer: Struan Walker (Scotland) – 10 goals
Player of the tournament: Jacob Draper
Best goalkeeper: Jaime Carr (Ireland)
Final rankings
- Wales
- Ireland
- Scotland
- Italy
- Czechia
- Switzerland
- Croatia
- Portugal
