AUGUST 22, DUBLIN: Ireland recorded a record win in international hockey in their quarter-final game with Malta. Ireland, with a World Ranking of #9, took on World Ranked #72 Malta, in the fourth quarter-final of the European B Qualifiers in Sports Campus Ireland on Thursday evening. Ireland also came into this tournament on the back of 5 Olympic Pool matches and 16 FIH Pro League matches played earlier this year. They were very clinical in front of goal and ran out 25-0 winners.
Alistair Empey scored 6 times, Ben Walker and Ben Johnson grabbed 4 apiece, and Jonathan Lynch, Shane O’Donoghue, and Michael Robson each scored twice. Luke Madeley, Lee Cole, Charlie Rowe, Louis Rowe and Daragh Walsh all weighed in with a goal each.
Fans attending all four matches certainly got plenty of goals for their entry price. Fifty-two goals were scored in total over the four matches.
Wales took on EuroHockey debutants at senior level Luxembourg and ran out 17-0 winners with hat-tricks for Jack Pritchard and Jolyon Morgan, and a brace for Benjamin Francis. Czechia beat Türkiye in a 9-1 game. Emre Dumus 9th minute field goal the only response from Türkiye to the Czechs onslaught with Jan Zelezny scoring two, Lukas Plokhy scoring a hat-trick and a goal apiece for Frantisek Toms, Ondrej Soukup, Adam Uhlir, and Martin Plachy. Italy and Poland played out a scoreless draw and it went to a shootout. For the second time in 12 months the Italians lost in Dublin to a shootout in a competitive match. Last year in the B Championship they had bowed out of the second-tier championships to Ukraine in a similar manner.
IRELAND:- Mark Ingram, Luke Witherow, Shane O’Donoghue(C), Lee Cole, Kyle Marshall, Jonathan Lynch, Charlie Rowe, Louis Rowe, Matthew Nelson, Alistair Empey, Ben Walker, SUBS USED: James Milliken (GK) [ 31 mins], Ben Johnson [4 mins], Louis Rowe [4 mins], Michael Robson [ 4 mins], Tim Cross [4 mins], Daragh Walsh [4 mins], Luke Madeley [5 mins].
Ireland will progress to Saturday’s second Semi-Final of the day where they will play Poland at 14:15 in the Sport Ireland Campus. Purchase your tickets and enjoy all the action by visiting hockey.ie/events/.
