Finland, Germany, Denmark, and England Progress to Semi-Finals - European Amateur Team Championship Day 3

12 Jul 2018

In the biggest upset of the round, eighth-seeds, Finland, defeated number-one seeds, Sweden, on the first day of match play at the European Amateur Team Championship at the Faldo-designed course, Sporting Club Berlin.

After qualifying for the Flight A match play by a single stroke, last year's Division 2 winners found themselves even with Sweden after the morning foursomes.

With two strong performances from Matias Honkala and Sami Valimaki, Finland found a chance to take the match on the 18th as the fourth of the five singles matches was one up in Finland’s favour. However, Veeti Mähönen found trouble off the tee and he and his opponent, Ludbig Aberg, went to the 19th.

Aberg had his chances on both the 19th and 20th, but Mähönen would not let the match go. In the end, Mähönen holed an 18-foot putt for birdie on the 22nd to send Team Finland a step closer to the medals.

Finland will face hosts, Germany, in the semi-finals, after they narrowly beat the defending champions, Spain, 4-3 in the match of the round.

Recently-crowned European Amateur Champion, Nicolai Hojgaard, won both of his matches for Denmark against Scotland today, helping his team to a comfortable 4.5-2.5 victory, with matches finishing relatively early.

Denmark will play second-seeds, England, in the semi-finals.

Although England’s 6-1 score-line may indicate an easy win, all matches against opponents, France, reached at least the 17th in what was a tough contest between two strong teams.

In the other half of the championship, Serbia, Italy, Portugal and Austria lost their Flight B matches. The four teams will compete for one spot to prevent relegation to the Division 2 event.

Full quarter-final results: http://scores.golfbox.dk/Shared.aspx?l=http://www.ega-golf.ch/golfbox-result-widget/0&m=t&h=/competition/1620994/teammatchscores

Semi-final livescoring: http://scores.golfbox.dk/Shared.aspx?l=http://www.ega-golf.ch/golfbox-result-widget/0&m=t&h=/competition/1620994/teammatchscores/2