Czechia will be looking to delight their home fans and get back into the women’s EuroHockey Championship top tier after a decade away; they start their qualifier campaign against Lithuania at Slavia Prague.
Before that tie, Austria are up against Türkiye who finished second at Championship III last summer in a battle between sides only separated by one place on the world rankings list.
All four nations primary target will be to win their first two game and, thus, take a spot at EuroChamps27; here’s how the second sector of the women’s qualifiers shapes up.
Every minute of the competition will be broadcast live on www.eurohockeytv.org with weekend passes costing €8.99
** click here to see the match-ups in the other side of the draw
EuroHockey Championship Qualifier I Women (Prague, Czechia)
Thursday schedule (all times local)
Quarter-final 3: Austria (World ranking: 33) v Türkiye (WR: 34) – 15.30 CET
Austria – as the highest-ranked side from the 2025 Championship II – are up against Türkiye who finished second at Championship III last summer in a battle between sides only separated by one place on the world rankings list.
The two nations have not met outdoors since 2015 when they played in the World League in Dublin, the Austrians winning 6-0. They do, however, have a link between the two panels with Kristina Vukovich playing in that tournament before taking nine years away from the national team and returning in 2025.
In preparation, they have played Poland four times – twice in Vienna, twice in Poznan – winning one, drawing once and losing two.
Coach Christian Hoffmann says the series gave “many positive insights” and the side “is looking forward to the tournament with great anticipation and motivation”.
Theirs is a panel powered by many indoor stars and a healthy quotient from the rising force at AHTC. Johanna Czech wears the captain’s armband while there is a healthy Harvestehuder THC contingent in Daria Buchta and Katharina Bauer and Fiona Felber is with Mannheimer HC.
For Türkiye, this will be their first capped matches since Championship III and they do so with quite a new look panel with a number of experienced players not involved this time.
Indeed, only captain Yeter Okumuş and Tugçe Șahiner have over 20 caps and they will likely have several debutants lining out in this fixture.
Quarter-final 4: Czechia (WR: 28) v Lithuania (WR: 53) – 17.45 CET
Hosts Czechia have a great record against Lithuania with four successive wins since 2016, most recently picking up a 4-1 victory last summer with Natálie Hájková scoring twice.
This summer, they warmed up for the tournament on the front foot with a healthy 12-0 win over Croatia and backed it up with a 3-1 success against Switzerland in the Alps Cup last weekend with Veronika Přibíková putting on a star show with six goals.
Martin Capouch – from the coaching team – reflected the Swiss encounter was “close to the quality” needed this week but it “was no as consistent as we would have managed; we still have to work on a lot of things”.
The team was captained during that tournament by Adéla Kožíšková who is back in the line-up after three years out.
For Lithuania, they are hoping to get in the frame for a first top tier appearance since 1999 while the Czechs were last there in 2017.
This will be their first outdoor international outing since Championship II last summer when they finished in seventh place, the highlight being a 2-1 win over Croatia.
