Men’s EuroHockey U21 Championship – day 2 round-up
Germany’s second successive win confirmed their place in the men’s EuroHockey U21 Championship as they got the best of France in Valencia.
John Dammertz was credited with the final touch as Germany forced the ball over the line despite the scrambling efforts of the French defence.
Ben Hasbach lifted a lovely backhand shot into the roof of the goal for the second goal before Arthur Plauche found a route down the middle for France to get a goal back in the 16th minute.
William Sanda, however, restored the two-goal lead with his second goal of the tournament, a lovely backhand shot across the face of goal; 3-1 at half-time.
And Sanda popped up again with another at the back post 10 minutes into the second half to put further daylight between the teams.
France survived a penalty stroke which hit the crossbar before running up eight corners as the Germans got into foul trouble but could not make them count, leaving the final scoreline at 4-1.
Earlier, Belgium’s young red lions eased to a 12-0 win over Switzerland; they were 3-0 up after a flurry of goals near the end of the first quarter and they never looked back.
Mathias Francois scored a classy goal with some ball juggling to make it five by half-time and then a series of penalty strokes from Charlie Langendries – who ended with a hat trick – put them even further out of sight.
The results means Germany are assured of a place in the semi-final with the outcome of Wednesday’s group game between Belgium and France determining the other spot.
Tuesday sees Pool B return with England playing Austria at 18.00 (CEST) and the Netherlands facing Spain at 20.15.
