England Women Dominate To Take Victory Against Scotland

The opening stages of the match were tight as they were expected to be in any England v Scotland match but it was England that secured the first penalty corner but Grace Balsdon's shot went just wide.

The England team had the majority of the possession for the first quarter and in the closing minutes, Tess Howard had a shot on target which was saved by Scotland's goalkeeper Amy Gibson and the rebound shot by Sophie Hamilton went wide.

In the first minute of the second quarter, Howard broke free on a pass from Ellie Rayer and went one-on-one with the goalkeeper and slotted the ball home to break the deadlock and secure England’s first goal.

They continued to dominate possession through the second quarter and got their fourth penalty corner in the final two minutes which Balsdon managed to get passed Gibson to double England’s lead and entered half time with a 2-0 lead.

The English team pressure continued in the third quarter but were reduced to 10 players when Lily Owsley got a green card. Scotland were threatening in England’s D in the 36^th minute but Laura Roper utilised her experience to force an error and get the ball back for England.

The 43^rd minute saw Charlotte Watson forcing Sabbie Heesh to make her first save of the game with an attempt that zipped towards goal and Roper picked the ball up and ran into Scotland’s box before passing to Holly Hunt and the ball was blocked by the goalkeeper which was seen as an obstruction and led to England’s sixth penalty corner.

Balsdon scored England’s third goal of the game with an excellent strike from the corner. She fired passed Gibson 44^th minute to put England 3-0 up at the end of the third quarter.

Scotland came out into the final quarter with renewed energy and forced a penalty corner from England in the opening minute of the final quarter but couldn’t take advantage of the chance.

England began building the pressure and Howard got the ball on the edge of the D from Hunt and fired a perfectly positioned strike to beat Gibson in the 52^nd minute and put the fourth goal on the board for England.

Howard secured her hat-trick after getting the final touch on Balsdon's penalty strike to put England 5-0 ahead in the 57th minute. 

On her performance, player of the match, Howard said: "I think we did everything we set out to do today and Scotland is always a tough battle with lots of emotion. We went out and played really professionally so we're really happy. I got an amazing pass from Ellie for my first goal and I just saw the goalie and tried to judge what she was doing and thankfully it went in. 

"The semi-finals will be a really tough match but we've done everything we can do over the last few hours to get there and whoever we face we will put our best foot forwards. 

"The crowd here has been awesome and the stadium brings a brilliant atmosphere and thanks to everybody for putting on a great competition. It's great to have the men and women's teams here and for us to compete along side each other."

England goalscorer Balsdon added: "We've played some periods of really good hockey over the last three games and we were aiming to extend those periods to the whole 60 minutes today and we can be really proud of our performance today.

"We were disappointed to not have created enough chances against Germany so today we wanted to prove that that isn't what we're about and we did that. We proved our hockey is about putting more pressure on the opponents."

Vitality England Women's Hockey Team go down 0-5 against the hosts Germany in their second match of Pool B at the EuroHockey Championship 2023.  

Lena Micheel (38'), Sonja Zimmermann (41'), Jette Fleschütz (46', 59') and Pauline Heinz (41') were the goal scorers for the home side. 

The opening minutes of the match saw both teams exchanging attacks, with the hosts slightly dominating the possession. They earned their first penalty corner of the match in the sixth minute, but couldn't convert it. Minutes later Lena Micheel took the shot on target, but the English goalkeeper Sabbie Heesh made a comfortable save.  

England kept losing the ball in the midfield, and sat deep inside their own half, allowing the Germans to make timely circle entries. However, the hosts couldn't take advantage of the ball possession, ending the opening quarter at 0-0.  

Germany earned as many as three penalty corners in the very first minute of the second quarter, but England's defence led by goalie Heesh denied the home side from breaking the deadlock. Germany piled pressure on England's defence with relentless forays, but couldn't make much of it.  

England, on the other hand, also had a fair share of chances, making inroads inside their opponent's half but couldn't find spaces as the German defence stood tall to keep them at bay. Thus, neither side could break the deadlock in the first half.  

Heesh, who stood like a wall in the first half, was tested again at the start of the third quarter. She made one more save to deny the Germans from scoring. Germany continued in the same vein and were successful in breaking the deadlock through Micheel's deflection during a well-worked penalty corner routine.  

They went on to double the lead through Zimmermann's strike from yet another penalty corner routine in the 41st minute of the match. With less than a minute to go, Germany earned their 10th penalty corner of the match, but Heesh made yet another fine save.  

The German onslaught continued as they went on to score add two more goals inside the first four minutes of the fourth quarter. Fleschütz scored the third goal in the 46th minute, while Heinz added the team's fourth goal in the 49th minute.  

Looking for a goal, England showcased urgency in the final 10 minutes of the match. They created half chances, but Germany's defence denied them from scoring.  

It was an end-to-end action in the closing stage of the match, both teams took turns in attack. Germany had their 11th penalty corner, but couldn't convert it. They added their fifth goal to the tally through Fleschütz from an open play, thus racing away with a 5-0 win. 

Reflecting on the match, Head Coach David Ralph said, “Disappointed, not just with the results, but how we played today. The first half was kind of okay. Germany punished us in the second half, and we lost our way after we conceded a few goals, so tough day for us at the office.” 

“We've got experienced players in the team, who have had ups and downs of the tournaments, some of our younger players are going through for the first time. But you know, we have got enough experience within the group. We will get together tonight, refocus and reframe on what we need to think about over the next 40 hours or so before we face Scotland,” he added. 

1. Giselle Ansley
2. Grace Balsdon
3. Fiona Crackles
4. Sophie Hamilton
5. Tess Howard
6. Sabbie Heesh
7. Holly Hunt
8. Alex Malzer
9. Hannah Martin
10.  Lizzie Neal
11.  Lily Owsley
12.  Hollie Pearne-Webb (c)
13.  Flora Peel
14.  Izzy Petter
15.  Ellie Rayer
16.  Laura Roper
17.  Amy Tennant
18.  Lily Walker

1. James Albery
2. David Ames (c)
3. Nick Bandurak
4. Will Calnan
5. Brendan Creed
6. James Gall
7. David Goodfield
8. James Mazarelo
9. Tim Nurse
10.  James Oates
11.  Nick Park
12.  Ollie Payne
13.  Phil Roper
14.  Tom Sorsby
15.  Zach Wallace
16.  Jack Waller
17.  Sam Ward
18.  Conor Williamson

In person – tickets for all 10 days of the EuroHockey championships are available to buy here : 
https://eurohockey2023.com/en 

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