Euro nightmare for Irish women

No goals and no points is the chilling statistic worrying Ireland’s senior ladies after they fell to two 3-0 defeats to Germany and Belgium on the opening weekend of the EuroHockey Nations Championships in Moenchengladbach.

Having centralised his squad since last October in a bid to make the top two here — and secure an Olympic berth in the process — Ireland coach Gene Muller must now turn his attention to retaining A division status. Ireland head into the relegation pool later this week, carrying over no points from the group stages, making today’s clash with England meaningless. While Muller admitted his side weren’t expecting to win against world number threes Germany, he’ll be disappointed with the nature of the loss to Belgium, who are ranked five places below Ireland in 19th. The girls in green edged possession and territory and won the short corner count too, but were hit with two Charlotte de Vos sucker punches in the first half before Lieselotte Van Lindt finished the job. To read full match reports from both games, check out The Hook, who is in situ in Germany for the tournament and is also offering live updates on the site!