Day 2 at the EuroHockey Indoor Juniot Championship II in Croatia saw another competitive and enthralling series of matches played at the Sveti Ivan Zelina Arena with the game of the day being the match between the Czech Republic and the hosts Croatia in front of a load and partisan crowd.
The Czech team started well taking the lead from a well taken goal from their captain Martin Coupach in the 3rd minute. Croatia worked hard to get back in to the match and their efforts were rewarded in the 11th minute when Mario Mucic scored from open play. The game remained very tight with both teams having chances but half time came with the score still 1 -1.
The second half started in the same way with both team scoring to take the score to 2 -2 after 29 mins. Croatia thought they had made a game winning break when Mucic completed his hat trick on the 31st minute and they dominated play while the Czechs were down to 4 men however with virtually the last strike of the ball Tomas Plochy snatched an equaliser and the game finished 3 -3.
Elsewhere Slovakia beat both Bulgaria 8-3 and Wales 6-3 to top the table while the Czech Republic beat Hungary 12 -1 to sit second and Croatia go in to the final day sitting third it promises to be a very exciting final day .
Ranking:
| Team | Pl | W | D | L | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slovakia | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 12 |
| Czech Republic | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 50 | 10 |
| Croatia | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 21 | 10 |
| Wales | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Bulgaria | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | -20 | 6 |
| Hungary | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | -26 | 0 |
| Norway | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | -47 | 0 |
Today’s Games:
Sunday 18th January 2015
08:00 Norway – Bulgaria
09:10 Wales – Hungary
10:20 Czech Republic – Slovakia
11:30 Croatia – Bulgaria
12:40 Hungary – Norway
13:50 Czech Republic – Wales
15:00 Croatia – Slovakia
Full gallery here
Photograph: Full house at the EuroHockey Indoor Junior Championships II