In the afternoon session of the second day at the European Junior Championships 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia, the top teams were distancing themselves from the competitors. England, Ukraine and the Czech Republic each have 2:0 wins and can hardly miss the quarterfinals.
Group 5: Czech Republic beats Poland, claims top spot
In an intense matchup with Poland the Czech team survived more than one crucial moment and had to give it all to get the win. After Adam Šulc and Kateřina Osladilová could take the mixed doubles with 14-21 21-15 21-19, Poland’s Dominik Kwinta brought his team back with another three-game victory. In the following three matches the Polish forced two more deciding games but couldn’t win another match. With this 4-1 win the Czech took the top seed and are just one step away from the quarterfinals.
In the second matchup of group 5 Estonia defeated Latvia with 3-2. Latvia gave it all and won two embattled matches (WS, WD) while taking three clear defeats (MS, MD, XD).
Group 6: Ukraine ready for the quarterfinals
In their second group match Ukraine claimed the top spot with a strong performance against Hungary. Both teams had won their first matches a day before but today Hungary didn’t stand a chance against a focused team from the Ukraine winning two out of three matches that went to the deciding game. With this 4-1 win the Ukrainian team can already start their preparations for the quarterfinals.
While the top spot of group 6 was taken, Romania and Croatia gave everything in the match for the third place in group. Romania fought back from trailing 0-2 and finally celebrated a 3-2 win.
Group 8: England walks trough
England today left no doubt about an upcoming quarterfinal appearance beating Bulgaria with 4-1. After losing mixed doubles and men’s singles by single digits Bulgaria fought back with a great performance of Kaloyana Nalbantova in women’s singles. But her victory couldn’t stop the English from moving on to win the following two matches.
At the same time, Lithuania had recovered from a 5-0 defeat to England the day before to secure the third place in Group 5 with a 3-2 win over Norway.
The evening session of day 2 is still underway. Watch all matches live or on demand on
badmintoneurope.tv