Saturday morning is set to see some major fireworks with all the final four spots of the women’s EuroHockey Indoor Championship in Prague going down to the wire.
No side has a 100% record left while a couple of draws mean there are a wide range of permutations for how the group stages will play out and the semi-finals assemble for Saturday evening.
Spain, Swiss and Czechs make power moves
Switzerland backed up their Thursday draw with Germany as they beat Ireland 5-1, a slightly deceptive scoreline in a contest which was level going into the final quarter.
Stephanie Weber put the Swiss in front at half-time but Chloe Brown levelled in Q3 with Ireland’s first goal for 36 years in the top tier.
But Switzerland finished well with Sofie Stomps, Elena Trösch, Maya Flury and Leonor Berlie all scoring late on.
Speaking about the win, coach Linda Hausener said: “Indoor is so full of emotions so to come from the excellent draw v Germany it was so important to get the win this morning. We knew the Irish game was the one we needed to win to stay in the division, so that was the first target.”
Belgium struck late against Austria to come back from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 and keep alive their challenge. Laura Kern’s sublime lobbed goal along with a penalty stroke had given the red foxes their strong advantage with four minutes to go but France de Mot and a Daphne Gose-Claessens goal tied things up.
The results meant Ireland were confirmed as relegated and will play on Sunday in the 9th/10th place playoff.
In Pool B, Spain moved up to seven points when they eased by Lithuania 8-0. With goal difference potentially critical after their draw with Poland, Spain went gung-ho in the last 12 minutes by removing their goalkeeper and scored four goals in as many minutes to expand the lead after their scoring slowed up in the middle period.
The session concluded with Czechia getting their second win, coming back from behind three times to defeat Ukraine 5-4 with Natálie Hájkova last minute corner winning the game.
Ukraine had the best of the first half with Karyna Leonova, Veronika Movchan and Olha Honcharenko making it 3-1. But the hosts ramped up the pressure in Q3, bringing the score to 4-4 before grabbing the three points in the 40th minute.
Austria’s historic moment
In the afternoon, Belgium moved onto seven points with a 6-1 win over Ireland with Marie Ronquetti scoring a hat trick in a composed performance.
Then came Austria’s historic moment as they got their first victory over Germany in EuroHockey Indoor Championship action. All nine of their previous meetings had ended in defeat with the Germans scoring 90 goals in the process to Austria’s five.
But Christian Hoffmann’s side were never behind in this one, Laura Kern and Daria Buchta building a 2-0 lead and then Buchta’s second and one from Johanna Czech made it 4-2 at the end of Q3.
Germany pulled one back through Maike Scheuer but they struggled with their corners and could not use that avenue to pull level.
Czechia’s Anna Železná in possession. Picture: Will Palmer/World Sport Pics
The Germans need to win against Belgium on Saturday morning to keep alive their title chances; they sit on four points, three behind both the Belgians and Austria who face Switzerland. The Swiss are also still in the hunt if they can grab a win by a healthy scoreline.
In Pool B, Ukraine got their first points with an 8-0 win over Lithuania with a late goal-rush helping their cause with Karyna Leonova scoring a hat trick.
The result, however, was not enough to keep them in conention for the top four as Czechia and Poland drew 3-3, leaving the semi spots still very much in the mix.
Natálie Nováková scored a brilliant opener but the lead did not last into the third minute as Amerlia Katerla tipped in a great move for 1-1.
Adéla Lehovcová and Viktoria Zimmermann traded corners for 2-2 before the latter restored the Czech lead at half-time.
Hanna Wochna levelled once more in Q3 before both sides had great chances to win it but none took them. It means no team has a 100% record and lots of drama in store on Saturday morning.
Poland need a win over Ukraine to go through to the final four while Czechia play Spain with both sides currently in the top two on seven points.
