European U-18 Championships: Day Two

Girl's EuroHockey Youth Championships
Ireland U-18 Girls 1 (Chloe Watkins) France 0
Ireland created a chance to qualify for the semi-finals as they got the better of France 1-0 in Nivelles, Belgium. They created plenty of opportunities including nine short corners and plenty of goalmouth action but their lone goal came courtesy of Chloe Watkins' 12th minute drag flick.

Ireland controlled the French attack well with Orla Fox marshalling the defensive effort while Watkins, Dora Gorman and Brenda Flannery impressed further up the pitch. Ireland will play England tomorrow (5.30pm, Irish time*) in their final group stage where a win would see Ireland progress with Belgium. Anything else and Ireland will contest the relegation pool.

Germany and the Netherlands are already into the semi-finals.


Group A standings (points/goal difference): 1. England 6pts (+5) 2. Belgium 3pts (+1) 3. Ireland 3pts (0) 4. France 0pts (-5)

* For a live match-tracker of this game, click here and then LT beside Ireland's name. For more pictures, click here

Boy's EuroHockey Youth Trophy
Game1: Ireland U-18 Boys 5 (Shane O'Donoghue 3, Stephen Dowds, Ian Sloan) Ukraine 1
Ireland's U-18 boys got their delayed start to the European championships off to a flyer as they hammered Ukraine 5-1 in Vienna this morning.

All the goals came in the first half with Shane O'Donoghue starting the rout in the eighth minute from a short corner drag-flick. He made it 2-0 when he finished off Kyle Good's pull-back from the endline before Ukraine got one back from a 16th minute corner.

But Ireland eased clear when Stephen Dowds finished off a fast break-out and Ian Sloan rebounded well at the top of the circle. And O'Donoghue finished off his hat-trick in the 30th minute to round off the scoring.

The match was originally abandoned yesterday due to adverse weather conditions after five minutes and was subsequently played this morning at 8.30am.

Game2: Ireland 2 (Shane O'Donoghue, Steven Dowds) Austria 4
In their delayed second game of the day, Ireland lost out to Austria to leave them requiring a draw in their final group game against Switzerland to qualify for the semi-finals. The Austrians were clinical at the set-piece, scoring three penalty corners and a stroke to take the honours and kept their noses ahead throughout.

They were 1-0 up at the break due the stroke before stretching the lead to 2-0 and then 4-1.

In group A, France and Croatia are into the semi-finals following two facile wins a piece against Italy and Croatia.

Other results:
Group B: Austria 4 Switzerland 0; Switzerland 3 Ukraine 2
Group A: France 14 Croatia 1; Wales 5 Italy 2; France 6 Italy 1; Wales 10 Croatia 0

Group B Standings: 1. Austria 6pts (+6) 2. Ireland 3pts (+2) 3. Switzerland 3pts (-3) 4. Ukraine 0pts (-5)
Group A: 1. France 6pts (+18) 2. Wales 6pts (+13) 3. Italy 0pts (-8) 4. Croatia 0pts (-23)