News

Men’s U21 final brought exciting action and 15 goals in a tough match between France and Spain. It was Spain, who took an early lead in the game, when Javier Arego Teurel and Mario Lopez Albaladejo scored for a 2 – 0 lead. Four minutes into the first half time Gaetan Hamoniaux scored the first goal of the match for France. Only 40 seconds later Spain lead 3- 1 thanks to Jose Luis Aguilar. But France did not give up and with two goals of Shani Benkatti and Leo Dehainault the result was tied when the players went to the break. 

 

In the second half France scored three times (Antony Vasseur and Sonny Boucher twice) before Spain successfully attacked the French goal three minutes before the end of the second half time. Thirty seconds later was already 7 – 4 after Celestin Aumont scored for France. Aguilar scored the fifth goal for Spain at this match, but it took only 15 seconds for Shani Benkatti to score again for France. In the final minute and a half before the match ended Antonio Romero Mesa scored twice for Spain, but there was not enough time left for a turnabout and the final score was 8 – 7 in favour of France.

 

In men’s U21 bronze medal match Netherlands defeated Germany 4 – 3. The game for placement 5/6 place between Italy and Poland was postponed. Ireland finished seventh in the final ranking, Czech Republic was eighth, Great Britain ninth, Switzerland tenth, Denmark eleventh, Portugal 12^th, Belgium 13^th and Russia 14^th.

 

The new U21 women’s U21 European Champion is the team of Germany, who defended their title from 2019 European Championships in Coimbra. Germans celebrated the title after their tight 2 – 1 win in a gold medal match with France. Hannah Kunz for Germany and Elise Langlois for France scored in the first half and Katharin Gruenewald brought the win to Germany with a goal 7 minutes and 45 seconds before the end of the match. Both Hannah Kunz and Katharin Gruenewald were among the top scorers of this tournament. Kunz scored 10 times and Gruenewald nine times to finish first and second on the scorers final ranking table.

 

Italy, hosts of this Championships, were happy after their bronze medal match with Great Britain. Italians who just missed out the medal at the previous European Championships, where they finished fourth, recorded a confident 4 – 1 win over Great Britain, silver medalists of the 2019 European Championships. Margherita Pontecorvo, Zoe Faiman (twice) and Martina Barbagallo scored for Italy and Katharyn Farley for Great Britain.

 

Spanish team finished fifth in the women’s U21 division, Netherlands sixth and Poland seventh.

 

On Sunday, eleven matches will be played in senior men’s division. Italy and France and Germany and Netherlands will play in the semifinal and seek their place in the gold medal match. In senior women’s division there are still 13 matched left, including decisive ones that will give names of the teams which will fight for the medals.