IRELAND SECURED their place at next year’s EuroHockey Championships after an emphatic 7-0 win over Turkey at the Sport Ireland Campus today.
The hosts, who earned a hard-fought win over Czech Republic on Saturday and convincingly beat Poland earlier in the week, only needed a draw to secure qualification,
The match was effectively all over by half-time, with goals from Michelle Carey, Naomi Carroll and Katie McCee securing a commanding 3-0 lead for their side.
In the second half, goals from Niamh Carey, Deirdre Duke, Róisín Upton and Sarah Hawkshaw added further gloss to the scoreline and confirmed their spot at the 2023 event in Germany.
“Delighted; it’s really important we are competing against the best teams in Europe next summer. It is a stepping stone for [the Olympics in] Paris 2024 and that’s what the past three games are all about,” said Upton, who was voted player of the tournament in addition to being its top scorer.
“This is a new structure in the Europeans and it opens things right up. You are playing different teams you don’t normally get to meet. We dealt with it well and got a good opening win against Poland. We had a tougher game against the Czech Republic who sat very deep and today, we are delighted to put seven on the scoreboard.
“The tournament clean sheet is probably the most pleasing thing. We put a real emphasis this tournament on our defensive effort, shutting out the number of opportunities we gave at the World Cup.”
The Limerick native added that their recent games were a useful exercise for a team that has been in transition since competing at the Tokyo Olympics last summer.
“It’s a relatively new group that only came together last April. Getting to play here in Ireland with our family and friends here was amazing for our first time having a tournament here [at the Sport Ireland Campus]. Secondly, it has given us a huge opportunity to continue building. We talked a lot about holding the ball, and controlling games. We had the opportunity to do that.”
Elsewhere in the group earlier today, Magda Smidova’s goal was enough to secure a 1-0 victory for the Czech Republic against Poland and secure their place at the EuroHockey Championship II next year.
Ireland: L Murphy, S McAuley, M Carey, S Hawkshaw, K Mullan, L Tice, N Carroll, C Perdue, D Duke, E Curran
Subs: N Carey, H McLoughlin, S Torrans, C Beggs, K McKee, C Hamill, A McFerran
Turkey: S Turker, K Guzelal, M Aslan, E Sahiner, M Oymak, S Yalcin, T Sahiner, P Kucukkoc, F Gultekin, E Bahcivan, Y Celik
Subs: Z Kendir, E Celik, I Taskiran, F Cigerli, S Kurt, C Korkmaz, S Guzeller
Umpires: R Woodcock (ENG), C Barwood (WAL)
Standings: 1. Ireland 9pts (+11) 2. Czech Republic 4pts (0) 3. Poland 3pts (-2) 4. Turkey 1pt (-9)
