IRL Indoor Women beat Luthuania in thrilling finish to take Gold at EuroHockey Indoor Championship II in Galway 

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Sunday February 11, Galway: Day 3 began in Galway with a pool game between Croatia and Sweden.

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CROATIA 7 SWEDEN 4 

These two teams produced an 11-goal thriller for the early arrivals at the Kingfisher Centre in Galway. Iskra Bedenko opened the scoring for Croatia after 12 minutes to put them 1-0 up. Dora Jelcic  added a second a minute later to leave them 2-0 up but Sweden responded through Laetitia Schrader who converted a penalty stroke in the 17^th minute, 2-1 Croatia heading to half time. Lucija Buzjak converted a penalty corner in the 19^th minute to make it 3-1 and Martina Petretic converted another penalty corner to leave the half time score Croatia 4 Sweden 1. Petra Hrupec scored again for Croatia in the 22^nd minute to make it 5-1 and then Sweden got awarded a penalty stroke which Klara Moberg converted in the 29^th minute to make it 5-2. Croatia responded through Sasha Abramovic in the 30^th minute to make it 6-2 but Sweden converted a penalty corner by Emilia Kalling-Smith in the 31^st minute to reduce the deficit to 6-3. Klara Moberg converted another penalty corner for the Swedes in the 38^th minute and Iskra Bedenko rounded off the scoring in the final minute for Croatia to leave the final score Croatia 7 Sweden 4.

PORTUGAL 3  SLOVAKIA 3

Portugal picked up their first point of the Pool II A of the European Indoor Championship in Galway by holding Slovakia to a 3-3 draw. The Slovaks had surprisingly held Ireland to a 5-5 draw in the final game of Saturday’s action. Portugal were awarded a penalty stroke in the 8^th minute converted by Ana Nogueira. Slovakia responded in the 9^th minute through Barbora Pucherova from open play to make it 1-1. Slovakia made it 2-1 when Karolina Vyskocova  got the first of her two goals on the day converting a 13^th minute penalty corner. Portugal equalised in the 15^th minute through Duianiela Nunes from open play. Ana Nogueira got her second goal of the game for Portugal in the 15^th minute when she converted a penalty corner to give Portugal a 3-2 lead.  Slovakia secured a share of the spoils in the 39^th minute  when Karoline Vyskocova converted a penalty corner to leave the final score Portugal 3 Slovakia 3

IRELAND  5 LITHUANIA 1 

Ireland went into their final pool match of the tournament trailing leaders Lithuania by 2 points with a simple mission. Nothing less than a win over Lithuania would be good enough to secure promotion to the top tier of European Indoor Hockey. There was no scoring at all in the first quarter. All the goals in this game came in the hectic final 10 minutes. Dovile Juraite opened the scoring for Lithuania in the 20^th minute and Lithuania led 1-0 at half time. Orla Fox converted a penalty corner to get Ireland on level terms in the 31^st minute. 1-1 a final result like this would have given Lithuania the title, however.

Lithuania’s hero  Dovile Juraite quickly became a villain. She was yellow carded in 32^nd minute and Ireland fired in a few goals while her team were shorthanded. Chloe Brown converted the penalty corner in the 32^nd minute to make it 2-1 to Ireland. Milla Fulton scored from open play in the 34^th minute to make it 3-1 to Ireland. Chloe Brown converted her second penalty corner of the day to make it 4-1 to Ireland in the 35^th minute and in the 39^th minute Ireland were awarded a penalty stroke which Orla Fox converted to make the final score 5-1. This put Ireland in first place by one point and secured the gold medal in this tournament plus the right to play in the higher echelon of European Indoor Hockey in the next tournament.

IRELAND:- Emma Buckley (GK ) ; Sarah Patton, Mikayla Power, Chloe Brown, Orla Fox , Milla Fulton

FINAL STANDING 

IRELAND 1^st place  13 points +21 Goal difference

LITHUANIA 2^nd place 12 points +12 goal difference

CROATIA 3^rd place  9 points +5 goal difference

SLOVAKIA  4^th place 5 points -4 goal difference

SWEDEN 5^th place 3 points -10 goal difference

PORTUGAL 6^th place 1 point -24 goal difference