EuroHockey: England beat Germany in shootout to reach final

England’s men have reached the EuroHockey Championship final for the first time since 2009 after beating world champions Germany on their home soil in a penalty shootout. 

Their semi-final was a tightly fought contest with neither team taking advantage of their chances as it remained goalless.

And England won the shootout 5-4 to reach the final for the first time in 14 years, with goalkeeper James Mazarelo’s heroics confirming their place as he denied German captain Mats Grambusch from converting their fifth attempt and final attempt. 

Germany started the match with a high level of intensity and high percentage of possession in the English D and drilled a free hit past Ollie Payne, but England referred the goal, and it was subsequently disallowed as the free hit wasn’t taken in the right place.

The English defensive line maintained their composure as the pressure of the Germans increased throughout and the second quarter started in a similar fashion with the German team pushing hard to try and break the deadlock. 

They had their first penalty corner in the 18th minute but the English team defended it excellently after the Germans missed the ball.
 
In the 21st minute, the German team earned three penalty corners in quick succession, but the English defence showed their strength to keep their forwards at bay as it remained scoreless at half-time.

The English team started the second half with a renewed hunger, putting good passes together and enjoying more possession in the German area but they couldn’t get the ball on target.

The third quarter continued with end-to-end action as both teams were fighting hard to secure the first goal and, in the final minute, Sam Ward had a diving chance in front of goal that beat the German goalkeeper Jean-Paul Dannenburg but was saved on the line. 

The match restarted with everything at stake for both teams in the last 15 minutes and England had a couple of attacking movements but couldn’t take advantage.

With four minutes to go, Zach Wallace took down a looping ball in the German area and managed to get it in front of the goal, but the forwards couldn’t get it past Danneburg.

In the last two minutes, the German team had excellent build-up and took a shot at Payne but he managed to block the ball and keep the score at 0-0.

Player of the match James Albery said: “I’m slightly lost for words to be honest, it’s been a bit of a blur. It was an unbelievable game and to win it on the shootout at the end is fantastic. 

“We’ve been focusing on our defence for a number of months now and Zach Jones [coach] has been leading the defensive side of our game and he expects the best and that’s what we tried to deliver. To keep a clean sheet against the Germans is also really impressive. 

“The shootout seems a fairly brutal way to go out after a game like that and it’s not the way we would have wanted to win the game, but we will take it. 
“We’ve worked really hard at them and after we went out this team at the World Cup, we didn’t want that to happen again and it’s credit to the lads who have put in the work over the last few months.”

England will now face the Netherlands in the final on Sunday (2pm), while the women play the bronze-medal match against Germany after losing to their Dutch rivals in their semi-final.