Scotland defeats Austria by 2-1 to snatch the Euro Hockey U-18 Championship II
Ben Peterson, once again was the star performer for the Scottish junior boys as they emerged victorious in the EuroHockey U-18 Championship II, played at Hockey Stadium, Via Goldoni, Cernusco sul Naviglio, Milan, Italy from July 11 to 16. Scotland defeated
Austria by 2-1 in the final.
The match was a very close contest as both the teams fought a tough battle for the title, but eventually it was the Scottish side that held the nerves until the end and snared the title. The match was at level till the interval, but the Scottish juniors
scored the winning-goal almost mid-way into the second half.
The first half started with a number of chances created by the each side, but both the teams remained unlucky on those chances. However, Scotland made their way through to the Austrian net in the 14th minute, when Ben Peterson scored the opening
goal of the match with a wonderful strike. Austria equalised after ten minutes and the match remained at 1-1 at end of first half.
In the second half, Scotland had to wait until the 50th minute and once again it was the same man, Ben Peterson, who made the winning-strike, as usual, that led them to the winning-podium. The goal was scored on the penalty-corner.
Meanwhile, the Polish junior athletes snatched the third place in the championship by defeating Switzerland by 3-2 in the third place match played at the same venue and on the same day. The match went into the extra-time as it was levelled at 2-2 in the
allotted seventy minutes. The winning-goal was scored with an open play in the second half of the extra time, while the other four were scored on penalty-corners.
The first half ended goal-less as both the teams created goal-scoring chances, but remained unlucky to convert any opportunity into goals. Poland had their best chance in the 23rd minute in the first half, but they narrowly missed the target.
After that the Polish side also had a couple of penalty-corners, but could not utilise those chances to the full and the first half ended at 0-0.
In the second half, Poland took the early lead in the 37th minute and doubled it in the 44th minute. The scorers were Kaspryzyk and Rutkowski. However, the Swiss team got the momentum in the later part of the second half and scored
their two goals in the 55th and 64th minute respectively, that lasted until the end. However, the Polish athletes made the winning-strike in the 12th minute of the extra time that led them to the victory stand.
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