Palacio de los Deportes de Riazor – A Coruña | July 19th, 2018
The last day of the preliminary group stage, on the sixth day of competition, was opened with the Netherlands-Belgium in which the last two places of group B would be decided. Victory for the Dutch with a final score of 10-5 and in which the five goals of the Belgians surprised, against than those that up to now had marked in the four matches previously played.
Andorra faced in the next match of the morning an Austria, who was already condemned to fight for the positions of the ninth to the eleventh along with the aforementioned Netherlands and Belgium. Good match of the Principality, who won 6-0 to the Austrians.
For the afternoon they waited for what until now were expected as the best matches of Eurohockey2018 and in which they were going to decide the first and second seats of groups A and B. Vibrating was the Germany-England, which at half time seemed something of the Teutons with a 3-1 and the fourth half of the second period. A minute of madness of the English put the tie to thirteen for the final, but Germany pressed in the final moments and took a nice meeting by 8-4 to be third in Group B while England finished fourth.
Vibrant has been the match between Spain and Italy, until the moment in which fewer goals have been scored of the entire championship. Although both teams had many chances to send the ball to the net, they could only score those of Alejandro Dominguez by Ignacio Alabart in the first period and Jordi Adroher in the second with a direct foul. Massimo Mariotti’s side had a clear chance to equalize in the last minute of the first half, when Spain were left with only two players on the court after a double blue card to Raúl Marín, but Nil Roca and Eduard Lamas withstood the onslaught of the Italians.
Before the start of Portugal-France, the last meeting of the previous group stage, a minute of silence was observed for the death of former Sporting CP João Sobrinho, who was international with Portugal winning with the Portuguese national team in 1977 and the 1982 World Cup. The first part ended with a surprise, as France took the lead with a 1-3 against a Portugal that was inferior and did not see the goal easily. France scored the fourth when it seemed that the comeback of Luís Sénica’s players was no longer going to occur, but little by little the Portuguese became owners of the match finally achieving the victory by 5-4, so they will be top of group A The schedules and matches as tomorrow with the quarter-final eliminations are as follows:
10:00 a. m. | Austria – Belgium
12:30 p. m. | Germany – France
5:30 p. m. | Andorra – Italy
8:00 p. m. | Switzerland – Spain
10:00 p. m. | England – Portugal