Germany hold off England to win on Day Two at EuroHockey Championships
GERMANY 2 (1) Marie Mavers 29, 51 (FG, PC)
ENGLAND 1 (1) Giselle Ansley 35 (FG)
England fell to a second day defeat at the hands of Germany in their penultimate Pool B match at the TriFinance EuroHockey Championships in Belgium. With the scores level at 1-1 as the sides went in for the break there was everything to play for. Unfortunately, it was Germany who ultimately capitalised, scoring the only goal of the second half. Despite England's best efforts in the closing stages they could not get past Germany's defence.
Before the game Reading's Helen Richardson received flowers for her 150th England appearance.
Germany went ahead in the 29th minute through Marie Mavers who clipped the ball in past Maddie Hinch in England's goal to make it 1-0, but England fought back through Surbiton's new signing Giselle Ansley on the stroke of half-time as she hit a rifling shot high into the roof of the net to bring the scores back level going into the break. In the 51st minute Mavers added her second of the game to give Germany the lead back. England threw everything they had at Germany and might have expected to take the lead with a string of penalty corners, but Germany's defence could not be broken and the final score remained 2-1.
Speaking after the game, England Head Coach Jason Lee, saw plenty of positives to take out of the match, "I'm obviously disappointed with the result, but I think our performance was really strong and I imagine it was a really good game to watch from a neutral's perspective. We like to play hockey that everyone will enjoy watching and I think we did that today. I thought Germany defended really well and although we created some good chances, things just didn't quite come off for us."
Looking ahead, he added, "I think it actually puts us in quite a favourable position for the rest of the tournament; we've got a little bit of pent up frustration to take into the remaining games. Overall I'm very pleased with how the girls played out there today, there was a lot of fight, our approach was right, and it could have gone either way. Germany just took their chances better. "
