Dutch men's hockey team win European champion with victory over England

The Dutch men's national hockey team extended their term as Europe's best, defeating England 2-1 in the final at the EuroHockey 2023 European championship. Led by national coach Jeroen Delmee, the victory means Oranje has secured their ticket for the 2024 Olympic Games.

The Netherlands opened the scoring in the first quarter via Derck de Vilder, who tapped in a rebound. Duco Telgenkamp, ​​the top scorer during the tournament with six goals, made it 2-0 after the break with a tip-in. England came one back thanks to Sam Ward in the fourth quarter, and then seemed to have brought the score level at 2-2 just before the end of the match with a goal by Phil Roper.

However, the video referee decided during a review to reject the goal, and to give England a penalty shot. Goalkeeper Maurits Visser stopped Nicolas Bandurak's effort, but turned out to have come off his line too early. The keeper then also stopped the second attempt.

It is the fourth European title for the Netherlands in the last five editions, and the team's seventh in total. The statistics against England, the 2009 champions, also suggested the Dutch defending champions were the favorites to win. Oranje remained undefeated in the last 20 matches against England, a streak dating back to 2010.

The Dutch team quickly made it clear in Mönchengladbach, Germany, that it wanted to continue their victory streak. Thierry Brinkman showed up twice in the early minutes of the match to try to get one past England keeper Oliver Payne, but it was De Vilder who scored moments later on a rebound after a shot by Terrance Pieters hit the post.

Telgenkamp, ​​who was the match winner in the semi-final against Belgium (3-2), got his first big chance in the second quarter. However, the accurate striker did not hit a particularly hard shot. Tijmen Reyenga and Jip Janssen, from a penalty corner, were also unable to increase their team's lead before the break. The start of the third quarter was then delayed for some time due to thunderstorms and hail.

The long interruption had no influence on the Oranje game, and the team doubled their lead in the third quarter with Telgenkamp scoring off a nice pass from Reyenga (2-0). England answered in the last quarter with Ward's goal (2-1), before De Vilder missed an excellent opportunity to make it 3-1. With the English keeper aside, he was thwarted by a defender at the last moment after shooting on a seemingly empty net.

The missed opportunity seemed to break up Oranje in the final moments, when Roper nearly equalized with four minutes left in the match. Partly thanks to the decision of the video referee, and the worker by Visser on the goal line, the lead remained intact.