Marc Salles leads Spain to 2-1 victory over France in EuroHockey Championship in Germany
The Spanish Men’s national hockey side scored an impressive but a hard fought victory over their French counterparts defeating them 2-1 in the second Pool C match at EuroHockey Nations Championship (Men) played at Warsteiner HockeyPark in Monchengladbach,
Germany on Friday, August 26.
The game was a close contest between two differently rated sides, as the Spanish currently are at fifth spot on FIH World rankings whereas France is on the 17th place. The Spanish had to fight a very tough battle in order to maintain their prestige
of not losing to a low ranked side. Although the French athletes played wonderfully well yet it was Spain who held their nerves till the end to clinch the victory. The match was a mixture of dominant periods by both the teams where the first half was evenly
balanced between the sides. The Spanish athletes dominated for most of the time in the second half by making a solitary strike in each of the halves, as the French athletes scored a single goal in the first thirty five minutes.
The first half started slowly but got some momentum as the game moved forward. The French team showed some wonderful movements creating short passes in the early part of the first thirty five minutes. The Spanish also created some decent chances early in
the game, but it was France who opened the account midway through the first half when Lucas Sevestre scored a beautiful field goal in the 18th minute and put France into lead. The Spanish team accelerated the pace of their play after conceding the
first goal and eventually succeeded in bringing the scoreboard level four minutes after the French action. Eduard Tubau scored a wonderful goal to equalise the score in the 22nd minute. The match continued with the same speed but no further goal
was scored in the remaining time of the first half which ended 1-1 level.
The second half proved to be an even tougher contest as compared to the first one as the French athletes looked more impressive in their defence and did not allow the Spanish athletes to do any further damage until the ending minutes of the match. However,
after a series of blistering attacks, the Spanish team eventually managed to score the deciding goal of the match when Marc Salles beautifully guided the ball into the French net in the 62nd minute. The match was concluded at 2-1 to Spain who will
be up against the Irish in their fifth place match to be played on Sunday, August 28. It will be interesting to see how the Spanish manage to carry their winning momentum forward in the tournament.
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