Belgium victorious over Scotland U18 boys in Krefeld

Scotland U18 Boys lost 8-1 to Belgium in their opening match of the U18 EuroHockey Championships in Krefeld, Germany.

Scotland got off to a good start and had a strong opening quarter. Belgium opened the scoring but Scotland came fighting back. The Scots quickly won a corner after some good work by Jamie Green, carrying the ball across the baseline and prompting a foul. The short corner was slipped left from the top of the D to Alex Marsland who slammed the ball home with a low effort through the goalkeeper’s legs.

The goal meant the match was 1-1 after the first quarter.

Scotland went toe-to-toe with the Belgians, and defended well in a high press, but some errors were punished by the clinical Belgians who surged into the 3-1 lead at half time.

The third quarter saw the Belgians show their quality, and the Scots were overrun, conceding four goals. The Belgium movement off and on the ball was impressive, and their speed was a challenge for Scotland.

Going into the final quarter 7-1 down was difficult but Scotland kept battling, but Belgium was able to bag another goal late in the contest to make it 8-1.

Head Coach Gavin Byers said, “We put in a good shift, and went toe-to-toe with them for good period of time, but we faded out of it and their quality really shown through. Belgium were able to consistently play at that level where we started to make mistakes, and drift away from the way we know we can play.

“It’s a game that will definitely get us up to speed, and now we have to go again against Germany, which will be a similar level of team. We’re hurting after today so we’ll need to have a bit of a reaction before we go into the crunch games against Ireland and Austria, which ultimately are focus games for us.

“It’s a tough day but with lots of learnings, and we’ll look to come back stronger.”

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