EHF: Germany delight home crowd to win fourth U18 boys title in last five editions

Boys EuroHockey Championship (Krefeld, Germany)

Germany won the boys EuroHockey U18 Championship for the fourth time in five editions, toasting their first ever hosting of the event in style with a cracking 3-2 final win over Belgium.

They had the guile to deny the Belgians a second title. Lukas Kossel’s seventh goal of the tournament in the 16th minute – a low bullet of a drag-flick – gave Germany a great start.

Charlie Langendries, another of the tournament’s leading goal-getters, netted his eighth in the second quarter for 1-1 from the penalty spot when Larry Fauchey was fouled.

Ben Hasbach joined him on the same mark so they would share the top scorer honours when he found the net in the 41st minute. He beautifully used his first touch from a ball into the circle to locate the space and cracked home a backhand shot for 2-1.

And the vital third goal came with seven minutes left when a long ball found Germany with an overload in the Belgian circle. They bided their time to work the ball to Titus Wex who had the clearest opening and he fired into the backboard.

Fauchey close the gap once more with less than three minutes left but Germany played the closing seconds well to win the competition for a fifth time overall and spark serious celebrations in the capacity crowd.

German captain Benedikt Geyer summed up the immediate reactions: “I am really happy; I don’t know what to say! Emotions are all coming right now and it feels incredible; European champions – an amazing feeling.

“Belgium are an amazing team; it was of course not like yesterday [the 8-6 semi-final against Spain] with as many goals. In the last few minutes, a few nerves at the end but we held on to the end.”

In the bronze match, Peppe Veen gave the Netherlands the perfect start with a goal in the first minute with a lovely deflection. But close-range efforts from Josep Martin and Javier Hernandez, showing hunger amid tight spaces, saw Spain swap the lead before half-time to create a 2-1 advantage.

Jan van ’t Land produced some outstanding juggling to equalise at 2-2 but Spain were ahead once more in the third quarter via Alex Duran who dragged in.

The Dutch fought back to make the game level for the third time with van ’t Land scoring from a near impossible angle with 1.3 seconds left before the third interval.

And Isaac Jozefzoon got on the end of a right wing baseline cross to get the game defining goal to make it 4-3.

England just about took fifth place ahead of Scotland despite a huge comeback from the Scots. Jake Edwards and Jack Webb had England in a 2-0 lead in the first 12 minutes.

Scotland missed a stroke in the second half but were back in it when Sam Hunt got one back and then Johnny Bradley levelled with less than 10 seconds left for 2-2. England, however, won the shoot-out 2-1 to leave Scotland in sixth overall.

Ireland finished their tournament in seventh place with a 2-1 win over Austria, ending their campaign with three victories out of six games. All the goals were in the first quarter with Max Caulwell and Ben Pasley outdoing an Adrian Fink strike.

Final standings