Session three brought 44 goals in three games in the men’s EuroHockey Indoor Championships as the Hamburg Sporthalle went goal-crazy with Austria continuing to the lead the way.
They have nine points but face second place Germany and third placed Netherlands on Saturday to see if they can reach Sunday’s final.
Belgium, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, meanwhile, face a big tussle to try and get into the bronze match.
Opening the session, Germany won a wild 21-goal contest with Switzerland, coming back three goals behind for a third successive game to get a result as they were 13-8 victors.
Both sides went without goalkeepers to start the tie and it made for a mad first few minutes in which the Swiss built a 4-1 lead by the end of the first quarter.
The hosts bounced back, scoring the next seven goals to transform the game into an 8-4 lead with some breathtaking play. They goals were spread around with Paul Doesch, Henrik Mertgens, Luis Holste, Michel Struthoff, Philip Schmid and Niklas Bruns all cashing in.
Switzerland kept battling with Yves Morard, Martin Greder and Lorenz Gassner responding to keep things interesting at 11-8 but two late efforts from Doesch and Anton Boeckel put Germany beyond reach.
Another goalfest with a big comeback followed straight after with the Netherlands hitting a super six in the final quarter to turn the side against Belgium.
They had trailed 5-1 and 6-3 before an amazing run turned things around quickly. Philippe Simar had been the Belgian side’s key man, putting them 2-0 up with Gaetan Dykmans adding another.
A Max Sweering stroke got the Dutch on the scoreboard but some lovely finishing from Simar soon had them in a powerful position at 5-1 in the 21st minute.
Bram van Battum’s tidy corner goal, though, started the comeback which amounted to nine goals in 18 minutes. Sweering and Boris Burkhardt cut the gap to 6-4 going into the final quarter.
The big push came in the 33rd to 35th minutes as Jeroen Hertzberger, Sweering and Jasper Tukkers all scored in a matter of seconds. Jochem Bakker put daylight between the teams at 8-6. Dykmans close the gap to one going into the last minute but Bakker and Burkhardt made sure of the second win for the Dutch to date.
Austria continued as the only side with a 100% record as they won a big tussle with the Czech Republic.
MIchael Körper was the scorer in chief and he took less than a minute to get on the scoreboard with a corner strike. Josef Trejbal cancelled that out soon after but a couple of quickfire goals before the end of the first quarter had Austria in control.
Oliver Binder scored an audacious flick from the left of the circle and Körper added his second for a 3-1 advantage at the end of Q1. Körper completed his hat trick in the third quarter before the Czech Republic carried a big fight to the world number one side.
Martin Seemann got one back in the final quarter while Körper saw a stroke blocked by Petr Vetrovsky. Try as they might, though, they could not another goal to jangle the Austrian nerves further.
On Saturday, the Netherlands face Switzerland at 9.00 (CET) before Belgium face the Czechs at 10.15 and Germany meet Austria at 11.30. The fifth and final set of men’s group fixtures sees the Czechs meet Austria at 18.15, Austria versus the Netherlands 19.30 and Belgium against Switzerland at 20.45,
** You can watch every game of the 2022 EuroHockey Indoor Championships via www.eurohockeytv.org; a €3.99 tournament pass is available for all countries EXCEPT Germany for games involving Germany. those games will be geo-blocked due to live broadcasts on local channels.
Further details here: https://eurohockey.org/2022/
