Croatia produced an amazing second half performance to win the men’s EuroHockey Indoor Championship II-A in front of their home crowd in Sveti Ivan Zelina.
They won 10-5 against Denmark in the final but they did not have it all their own way as they trailed 3-2 at half-time with a player in the sin-bin.
But the Croats went on a dream run, scoring six times between the 22nd minute and 34th minute without a reply to turn the game into an 8-3 advantage.
Jesper Jonasson’s second penalty stroke of the game gave some respite but Matthias and Lucas Bachmann tacked on another couple of goals to finish the game in style.
It means Croatia will be back in the top division having made their debut in 2024 in Leuven, doing so with five wins out of five, scoring 52 goals in the process.
Slovakia won the bronze medal match ahead of Hungary with a lively 6-4 win. The Slovaks led from the very start with Daniel Petráš scoring the first of his four goals.
Michal Blazovsky made it two before the end of Q1 and they moved into a four-goal lead early in Q3 before Hungary rallied, getting goals back from Tamas Suba and Zsigmond Szóga.
But Petráš struck twice in a minute to settle the contest and the destination of the medal.
Earlier, Denmark confirmed their place alongside Croatia in the final in the opening game of the day when they snatched a 3-2 win over Slovakia.
The Slovaks needed a draw to reach the final and came exceedingly close to getting that result as Adrian Augustinič and Daniel Petráš countered goals from Oscar Birch-Hald and Jesper Jonasson to make it 2-2 going into the last two minutes.
Jonasson, though, won the day with a late goal and they survived late drama to stay in front.
The Croatian hosts confirmed their place at the top of the group phase with an 8-2 win over Hungary with Lucas Bachmann scoring five of the goals.
Men’s EuroHockey Indoor Championship II-A (Sveti Ivan Zelin, Croatia) – final rankings
- Croatia – Promoted for 2028
- Denmark
- Slovakia
- Hungary
- Bulgaria
Player of the tournament: Jesper Jonasson (Denmark)
Goalkeeper of the tournament: Jakub Bogár (Slovakia)
Top goalscorer: Mario Mucić (Croatia)
