Spain beat England for bronze

SPAIN’S women’s hockey team won their first Euro medal in 16 years when they beat England in the third-place playoff match at the European championships to claim bronze.

And the Spanish men took silver after losing 5-0 to first-time winners Belgium in the final.

The Spanish women had to come from behind to draw 1-1 at full time, then took the medal by winning 3-2 in a penalty shootout.

 Hannah Martin had opened the scoring for England in a close game when an interception deep in the Spanish half set her up in the 10th minute.

But six minutes later Begona Garcia fired a ball into the circle and Maria Tost got enough stick on it to divert the ball past Maddie Hinch in goal.

With the score level in Antwerp (Belgium) it went to a shoot-out with England taking a 2-1 lead. But two failures in a row meant that England missed out on a medal at the event for the first time since 2003.

In the final The Netherlands followed up their 8-0 thrashing of England in the semis with another impressive performance, beating Germany 2-0 with goals in the first and final quarters.

It was their sixth European final and the fifth time they have won.

Kelly Jonker opened the scoring in the 12th minute before Lidewij Welten made the game safe as the final whistle approached.

For Spain the bronze was not the only title they brought home. Gigi Oliva was named player of the tournament while

In the men’s tournament Belgium took their first Euro title. The World Cup holders were on home soil and made the most of their noisy support to take the trophy.

They had beaten Spain 5-0 in the tournament opener before posting an identical score in the final.

In the third-placed playoff match the Dutch beat Germany 4-0 to medal for the eighth consecutive Euro Championships.

England beat Scotland 3-0 to take fifth place and condemn the latter to relegation from the top tier., leaving Wales to battle it out against Ireland to avoid the last relegation spot.

Wales not only needed to beat the Irish for the first time since 2006 but by two clear goals.

They completed their task emphatically with a 4-0 win, sending Ireland and Scotland down in the process.