England u21 women will battle for the bronze medal on Saturday after narrowly losing to Germany 2-1 in the first semi final at the EuroHockey Junior Nations Championship in Belgium on Thursday afternoon.
After conceding two early goals, England hit back to pressure their rivals well, and halved the deficit shortly after half time through Emily Defroand. But they couldn’t break through some strong defending from the Germanys and will now face either the Netherlands or Spain on Saturday afternoon (12.30pm UK time).
“We struggled in the first half with our technical execution in key areas of the pitch and finding ourselves 2-0 down was disappointing,” said England coach Kevin Johnson.