Austria will face Poland in the men’s schauinsland reisen EuroHockey Championship final following a rocking day at the SNP Dome in Heidelberg.
The former won through in a shoot-out against Spain before Poland upset the full house when they beat Germany 4-3 to reach the final for the fourth time.
The red capricorns were the first to reach the final, doing so after a huge defensive display kept the livewire Spanish at bay for long periods before striking on the counter.
And then they produced the good in a shoot-out after normal time ended 3-3 with Mateusz Szymczyk keeping out all three Spain efforts.
Losonci opened the scoring just three minutes in from a corner but they spent much of the first half penned inside their own circle, forced to retreat and tackle back hard.
Ferran Muñoz equalised in the fifth minute and then Spain went in front early in the second quarter but they found further openings hard to come bay.
Austria duly caught them just before half-time with Losonci nicking the 2-2 goal.
Muñoz restored the lead for Spain in Q3 but Losonci came up with the goods from a corner once more with two minutes to go for 3-3.
He scored again in the shoot-out while Szymczyk saved everything else for a 1-0 success.
The second semi saw Poland look to overturn the home favourites in front of a sold out and raucous crowd in a repeat of the 2024 final.
It was tight and tactical in the first half with Poland looking the more co-ordinated side and they took the lead just before half-time through Gracjan Jarzyński with a sumptuous backhand finish.
Gracjan Jarzyński celebrates. Picture: Frank Uijlenbroek/World Sport Pics
Dieter Linnekogel levelled from a corner in Q3 but any sense it would unsettle the Poles were quickly dispelled as Maksymilian Koperski’s clever corner put them back in front within a minute. Then Jarzyński forced in another for 3-1.
Sten Brandenstein cut the gap once more before the third break but Jacek Kurowski put more distance back into the Polish lead when he poked one through the defences of Jasper Ditzer.
From there, Germany piled on the pressure and Anton Pöhling reduced the lead to 4-3 with four minutes left. Poland, though, were not to breached again and they held on for a famous win.
They now go in search of a first ever title while Austria are going for a fourth success having won in 2010, 2018 and 2022.
In the fifth to eighth place playoffs, it was a thrill a minute with Belgium and Switzerland winning thrillers.
For the indoor red lions, they staved off a Czechia comeback to win 5-4, a nervy ending after they had built a 4-0 lead in the first 16 minutes with Philippe Simar scoring his 10th and 11th goals of the weekend.
Vít Soukup got his side on the scoreboard at half-time but their position looked forlorn at 5-2 going into the final stages; the Czechs got two back but too late to affect the outcome.
Switzerland, meanwhile, came back from 4-2 and 5-3 down before winning against Portugal in a shoot-out, denying the latter their best ever finish in the Euros.
The flair of Laurens Halfmann and Rodrigo Castro created those leads but the Swiss netted four times from set pieces – two Michel Morard corners, two Loris Grandchamp strokes – and then drew level via Mika Conrad.
In the shoot-out, Yves Morard and Grandchamp’s impudent flick to the top corner secured a 2-0 outcome.
