The stars of the future have assembled in Krefeld for the 12th edition of the EuroHockey U18 Championship for boys and girls with 18 teams all going for glory.
Both competitions will feature nine teams as part of an alignment due to Covid-19 which saw the 2021 editions reduced in entrants with teams unable to travel.
As such, the competitions were originally due to feature 10 teams but Russia who are excluded for the foreseeable future, reduce the line-up.
It means Pool A in each competition will feature five teams and so they will take centre-stage over the first weekend; Pool B has four teams and begins on Monday.
Day one on Saturday sees Belgium facing Scotland in both the boys and girls tournaments while Austria meet Ireland on the boys side; for the girls, the day closes with France against the Irish.
On Sunday, Belgium playing Ireland in a double-header as do Germany and Scotland before Monday brings the opening fixtures in Pool B.
The aim for the group stages is to get into the top two and advance to the semi-finals.
At the bottom end, margins are tight. For 2025, the competitions will revert to its traditional eight-team setup and so three more nations – the sides finishing seventh to ninth will be relegated.
To follow the competition, you can watch each game played on Pitch 1 in Krefeld – a total of 32 out of the 46 games – live on www.eurohockeytv.org.
We will post daily round-ups on this site and other items on our EuroHockey social media channels.
** You can also read our team-by-team previews here:
Boys: https://eurohockey.org/2023/07/06/eurohockey-u18-championship-boys-team-by-team-preview/
Girls: https://eurohockey.org/2023/07/07/eurohockey-u18-championship-2023-girls-team-by-team-preview/
***
Get your U18’s LIVESTREAM PASS HERE: https://www.eurohockeytv.org/en-int/page/event-pass-u18-championships
Boys’ match schedule here: https://eurohockey.altiusrt.com/competitions/316/matches
Girls’ match schedule here: https://eurohockey.altiusrt.com/competitions/317/matches
