A big day for Germany, Belgium, Ukraine and Greece

Germany, Belgium and Ukraine were – perhaps surprisingly – the most impressive teams during the first match day of the men’s tournament in the 2017 IBSA Goalball European Championships.

On the other side, recent goalball powerhouses Lithuania, Turkey and especially host team Finland had a bit of a slow start to the tournament.

Michael Feistle scored ten goals as Germany beat the reigning European Champion Turkey 6–1 and Czech Republic 8–3.

Caption: Michael Feistle in action for Germany.

"We are a young and growing up team so every victory is very important for us. We want to get a place for a quarterfinal and then we'll see what happens", Feistle said.

Ukraine was another team in men’s Pool A with two wins. They beat the Czechs 10–8 and Great Britain 14–7.

Belgium shocked the host team Finland in men’s Pool B with an 8–1 trashing. They went on to beat Slovenia 8–3 in their second match.

"We are more than satisfied. Our goal was to win at least one of our two games on Monday. Now we are going to the second day with six points and lots of confidence", said Bruno Vanhove of Team Belgium.

In the women’s tournament there was less room for surprises as Russia and Israel won both of their matches. The third team with two victories was Greece in Pool Y. They defeated Ukraine 4–3 and Denmark 3–1.

"I’m not surprised at all. We were successful in our game plan. Our strongest part is team work and love for goalball", said Greek head coach Melpomeni Kessanopoulou.

See all the results and pool tables after first day in the results pages.
 

 Watch all matches live on the championships web site.

You can also follow the tournament action via social media:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/ibsagoalball

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pajulahti2017

Instagram: www.instagram.com/goalballfinland

Today's matches

Men

09.30 Pool A: Germany–Ukraine
​10.40 Pool B: Belgium–Lithuania
11.50 Pool A: Turkey–Czech Republic
13.00 Pool B: Finland–Slovenia
14.10 Pool A: Great Britain–Germany
15.20 Pool B: Sweden–Belgium
16.30 Pool A: Ukraine–Turkey
17.40 Pool B: Lithuania–Finland
18.50 Pool A: Czech Republic–Great Britain
20.00 Pool B: Slovenia–Sweden

Women

09.30 Pool Y: Denmark–Ukraine
10.40 Pool X: Sweden–Great Britain
11.50 Pool Y: Russia–Greece
13.00 Pool X: Turkey–Israel
14.10 Pool Y: Finland–Denmark
15.20 Pool X: Germany–Sweden
16.30 Pool Y: Ukraine–Russia
17.40 Pool X: Great Britain–Turkey
18.50 Pool Y: Greece–Finland
20.00 Pool X: Israel–Germany

Caption: competition banner.