England, Germany, Italy and Israel all improved to 3-0 on the penultimate day of pool play at the 2025 European Men’s Lacrosse Championship, while the Netherlands, Portugal, Poland and France also picked up wins.
Germany withstood the toughest test of the day, narrowly outdueling a veteran Czech team, 11-9. Israel and England knocked off previously unbeaten teams in Switzerland and Latvia.
France also pulled out a thriller with a last-second goal to slip by Greece, 10-9, in one of the games of the tournament.
Alongside Ireland, there are now five undefeated teams left in the 24-team field ahead of the final day of pool play. The top four pool winners seeded by tiebreakers will earn a bye into the quarterfinals, while the fifth-best pool winner will enter the play-in round against the 12th seeded team.
All five second place teams will enter the play-in round as well as the two highest-seeded third place teams.
As it stands ahead of the final day of pool play, Latvia, Czechia, Wales, France and Switzerland are in second place across their five pools. The current third place teams are the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia, Slovakia and Scotland.
The top seven teams in the final standings of the tournament will qualify for the 2027 World Lacrosse Men’s Championship in Tokyo, Japan.
Recaps from each game can be found below:
SUI-ISR | NED-BGR | CZE-GER | LAT-ENG | SCO-POR | POL-UKR | DEN-ITA | FRA-GRE
Statistics throughout the championship are available at worldlacrosse.sport/emlc25 and live streaming is free at WL TV and LAX TV.
Israel prevailed in a battle of 2-0 teams with a comfortable 12-2 victory over Switzerland including a perfect 8-0 scoreline in the second half.
Ian Kadish dominated faceoffs for Israel with 11 wins out of 15, and Matthew Balter had his way with the Swiss defense, amassing five goals and two assists. Goalkeeper Drew Morris made eight saves on 10 shots on goal.
Andre Bremgartner made 12 saves for Switzerland.
At 3-0, Israel will look to wrap up the top spot in Pool E against Norway on Monday. Switzerland will try to advance to the play-in round and needs to defeat Portugal.
The Netherlands wrapped pool play at 2-2 with a 23-1 win over Bulgaria to stay in the play-in hunt.
Jake Bowman posted a tournament-high in points with five goals and 10 assists. Alderik Rafiq van der Heyde added eight points and Arnold Bovy recorded seven.
The Netherlands are in third place in Pool A behind Latvia and England, and will be scoreboard watching throughout Monday to try and enter the play-in round over other third place teams.
In a highly anticipated battle between European giants, Germany pulled away in the final stages from Czechia to win 11-9 and take pole position in Pool B.
Germany led 7-3 at halftime and 8-3 early in the third quarter, but the Czechs mounted a frenetic comeback with three goals in the final three minutes of third quarter to cut the score to 9-8.
Martin Bowes tied the game for Czechia three minutes into the fourth, but Justin Wismer snapped a 10-minute drought for Germany to restore the lead moments later.
Christoph Belger added an insurance goal with eight minutes to play and Germany rode out the rest of the game. Anton Guntzman and Ondrej Strieblik battled to a relatively even day on faceoffs, but Guntzman helped Germany to a crucial 3-1 edge in the final quarter.
Lasse Volquardsen finished with four goals for Germany while Wismer and Moritz Spiegel added three-point outings.
Bowes had four points for Czechia and goalkeeper Jacob Malasek made 10 saves.
Both teams play on Monday, with Germany facing Spain and Czechia facing Ukraine. Germany will be looking for a bye into the quarterfinals while Czechia needs to defeat Ukraine to advance to the play-in round.
England held off Latvia in a battle of undefeated teams, 8-3 to close in on the top spot in Pool A.
England started with three goals in 15 minutes and while Latvia hung tough into the middle of the third quarter, England’s defense shut out Latvia for the final 20 minutes of the game.
Daniel Watson restored a two-goal lead for England in the final 30 seconds of the third quarter, and finished with two goals and an assist. Blair Pachereva also added three points.
Ryan Richters excelled in net again for Latvia, making 16 saves on 24 shots.
England can cement its spot atop the pool with a win against Finland, while Latvia has to pick up a win against Bulgaria.
Scotland secured a 2-2 record by knocking off Portugal, 14-8.
Scotland’s key stretch was a 5-0 run in the final 10 minutes of the second quarter that included three power play goals.
Daniel McQuade registered six points for Scotland and Swenson Ethan scored four goals.
Steven Calisto made nine saves for Portugal and Michael Hawkins posted two goals and three assists.
Scotland are not in action on Monday and will await other results to see if it will advance to the play-in round.
Poland also finished at 2-2 in pool play with a 14-2 win against Ukraine.
Ten different players scored for Poland and Matthew Dyszkiewicz’s four points led the way. Alexander Zborowski made six saves on eight shots faced.
Poland will wait for the conclusion of results on Monday to learn its spot in the next round.
Italy rolled to a 3-0 record with a 15-4 win over Denmark.
John Piatelli notched six goals and Brian Piatelli added five goals and two assists.
Goalkeeper Michael Dominick Ippoliti continued his hot form with six saves on seven shots faced.
Italy can cement its spot atop Pool D with a win against Slovakia tomorrow.
James Barlow scored on a last-gasp effort with one second remaining to deliver a 10-9 victory for France over Greece in one of the games of the championship.
France led 7-4 early in the third quarter but Greece closed the frame with a three-goal run all scored by Antony Tsakos to tie the game with seven seconds left in the period.
France scored the next two, but Greece found a gutsy response to knot the game at 9-9 with just over three minutes to play.
Greece gained possession and tried to hold for the last shot but France forced a crucial turnover on Tsakos with 28 seconds to play.
On the other ensuing possession, Barlow forced a shot on frame that just trickled past Anthony Katagas with one second on the clock as France celebrated a memorable win.
Barlow finished with three goals and Lucas Menendez led France with four goals and an assist. Goalkeeper Joseph Varela stood tall on the day with 15 saves on 24 shots faced.
France improved to 3-1 and will have the day off on Monday while watching the result of Italy vs. Slovakia. With three wins, France will be in the next stage of the tournament.
