Girls EuroHockey U18 Championship (Lille, France)
The thirteenth edition of the girls EuroHockey U18 Championship gets under way on Sunday with Lille becoming the first French host of this prestigious competition.
The home side will look to build on their impressive 2023 showing in Pool B when they face medalists Belgium and Spain along with newly promoted Poland in the group stages.
Pool A, meanwhile, features the two nations to have won the competition. Germany claimed the first title in 2002, defeating the Netherlands, which has won a total of eight European titles and thus holds the record. The Germans have the other four titles.
All aim to be in the top two in their groups to push for the medals; the bottom two in each initial group goes into the relegation pool from which two sides will be demoted.
Each group played in Pitch 1 and all semi-finals and finals will be broadcast live on www.eurohockeytv.org with an event pass costing €7.99.
** Click here to see the full schedule
Read on to find out more about each team.
Pool A: England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands
Pool A features both Germany and the Netherlands, the only two nations to have won this title since its introduction in 2002 in Rotterdam.
The Germans are the reigning champs while the Dutch did not reach the semi-finals for the first time in 12 editions, ending up in fifth place in Crefeld.
Chief among the German players to watch out for is Maria Fahning who has played 50 times for underage international teams while Madita Niebuhr, Annika Schönhoff (19 goals each) and Franzsika Pabsch (18 goals) have all been prolific in the circle in their previous youth games.
For the Dutch, the side has a healthy contingent from the HDM side who won the Dutch national Under-18 championship a couple of weeks ago, namely Phileine van den Bosch, goalkeeper Lotte Mureau, captain Ross Alkemade and Yara Akkerman.
They defeated SV Kampong in that national final for whom now-team mate Olivia Huisman scored in the final.
England have picked up bronze on seven previous occasions and only missed out on the semi-finals once in their 11 appearances to date.
One to watch for them is striker Biba Mills who already made her mark with East Grinstead – she scored in the 2024 EHL to become the Euro Hockey League’s youngest ever goalscorer. Isabelle Yonge is another to have graced that stage, impressing with Surbiton at Easter.
For Italy, it will be their debut on the top division, qualifying as Championship II-A winners in Zagreb two years ago.
Their teams is captained by Eleonora di Paola who played in the EuroHockey Club Trophy earlier last year with Butterfly Roma along with Laura Cirilli.
Beyond them, Rachele Barion and Ida Panieri played in the 2023 campaign but it is, otherwise, quite a young line-up looking to bank strong experience.
Pool B: Belgium, France, Poland, Spain
France (pictured, top) will be looking to build on their strong sixth place finish in 2023, a tournament which brought the likes of Paola La Nindre and Philippine Delemazure to a much wider audience. Their previous best performance was in Dublin in 2013 when they ended in fourth place.
Racing Club de France’s Fanny Raby and co-captains Zoé Gaillard (CA Montrouge) and Diane Saint-Martin (Cambrai) bring their experience from 2023 to the table.
Spain are making their ninth appearance in the Championship and have a strong recent record, winning silver in Valencia in 2021 and then securing bronze in 2023.
Their side features a string of players adept at winning trophies on the domestic stage while Paula Aurell part of the Club Egara side who won the Copa de la Reina and Carlota Alvarez was in the Club de Campo squad who won the Division Honor.
The team is co-captained by Victoria Mallagaray from Jolaseta who were 2024 Spanish Under-18 cup champions and Mireia Gifra from Junior FC.
Belgium’s rise on the senior stage has run in conjunction with their success at underage level and they have won silver twice in the last three Under-18 championships; they have also been in the top four each time in the past 10 years.
On the coaching side, they have considerable know-how with ex-Australian international Glenn Simpson backed up by the talismanic Jill Boon.
Their panel features a series of EHL Women’s medal winners from Easter, notably Alexi Van Remortel – who scored in the bronze match – Fee Van Den Abeele and Ilke Cuffez.
Poland will play in the top division for a fourth time but will be looking to improve on their eighth place finishes in 2002, 2005 and 2016. They qualified by virtue of their Championship II-B gold in 2023 in Swansea.
Their side is captained by Julia Rymer who already has senior international caps to her name and was part of the Under-21 indoor side that took silver in Walcz in January, scoring six goals in the process.
She was joined in that team by Berliner SC club mate Lucia Horn, Hanna Wochna and Jagoda Arciszewska.
