Mladost and Lisbon Casuals take top honours in Porto – Women’s Challenge III round-up

HAHK Mladost and Lisbon Casuals took the promotion places on offer in Porto as they won their final day playoffs over Europa and GD Viso, respectively.

Mladost took the first promotion spot on behalf of Croatia as they won a dramatic battle against Europa in a shoot-out. Normal time ended scoreless as both sides were superb in their penalty corner defence, Europa keeping out 11 set pieces while Mladost had to block out five corners in the second quarter to keep their sheet clean.

And goalkeepers remained on top in the shoot-out but it was the Croatian side who got an early lead with Lucija Čepo and Dora Lagančič scoring in the first two rounds for a 2-1 lead. This went unchanged through the last three rounds of the shoot-out, earning Mladost first place and Europa ending in third overall.

For Lisbon, they won a thrilling derby against their Portuguese compatriots. Jessica Alcoba scored from a corner in the sixth minute but Viso’s Cecilia Gil levelled before the end of the first quarter.

It remained that way for half an hour before the victory was won by Isabel Gregg Lopes da Silva for a memorable 2-1 result.

Sweden’s SLF Mesaicos finished their debut on a high with their first European win, a 3-0 victory over ABC-Team. All three came in the last 16 minutes via Samantha Mullins, Nathalie Ruttena and Laureen Dahrendorf.

** All results, pools, and game stats below from the EuroHockey Club Challenge III, Women, Porto, Portugal

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