Russian Women take bronze medal in EuroHockey Nations Championship II in Poznan, Poland
The Russian Women snatched the bronze medal in the EuroHockey Nations Women’s Championship II as they defeated their French counterparts by 3-2 in the third place playoff match played at University of Physical Education, Ul Krolowej Jadwigi in Poznan, Poland
on the final day of the championship, Sunday, August 14.
It was a very tight contest between the sides where the Russians dominated the entire first thirty five minutes as they scored three goals in that time while their opponents could not make any impact on the scoreboard. Whereas the second half clearly belonged
to the French-women in which they made a double strike but that was not enough to claim the medal while the Russians remained goalless in the second half.
It was the first 15 minutes that turned the game towards Russia as they made a triple strike in that short span time. They opened their account just nine minutes into the first half when Svetlana Grigorieva, the skipper of the Russians, scored a wonderful
field goal in the 9th minute and put her team ahead of France. The Russians took just another four minutes to double their lead when Margarita Drepenkina converted a penalty corner into goal in the 13th minute to make it 2-0 for the Russians.
In the 15th minute the Russians tripled their lead by converting another penalty corner into a well directed goal and the scorer was once again, Margarita Drepenkina who scored her second goal of the match. The French-women also tried hard to show
some results but their efforts proved useless as they could not find the way to the Russian net.
However, the second half totally belonged to the French-women in which they made a double blow to the Russians but they fell short of a single strike that finally made them a losing side. The French Women looked more aggressive in their approach as compared
to the first half where they remained on defensive mode for most of the time. They opened their account 14 minutes into the second half when Elise Preney easily converted a penalty corner into their first goal in the 49th minute thus reducing the
Russian lead by one point. In the remaining time of the second half both the teams struggled very hard and made some desperate efforts to score further goals but there was no action until the 70th minute when the French Women were awarded a penalty
stroke moments before the close of the play. Muriel Foulard was flawless in converting that stroke into their second goal. The match concluded at 3-2 to Russia.
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