Four powerhouses – England, Israel, Italy and Germany – made their debut at the 2025 European Men’s Lacrosse Championship on Friday with routine wins to join four other victorious teams on the day in Scotland, France, Poland and the Netherlands.
France became the first team to reach 2-0 with a win over Slovakia, and Scotland, Poland and the Netherlands all secured important wins to improve to 1-1 and stay in the hunt for the play-in round.
Recaps from each game can be found below:
BGR-ENG | NOR-SCO | POR-ISR | GRE-ITA | SVK-FRA | ESP-POL | UKR-GER | FIN-NED
The top seven teams in the tournament will qualify for the 2027 World Lacrosse Men’s Championship in Japan.
The top four teams in pool play will advance directly to the quarterfinals while the fifth through 12th best teams will enter the play-in round for the final four spots in the quarterfinals.
Statistics throughout the championship are available at worldlacrosse.sport/emlc25 and live streaming is free at WL TV and LAX TV.
England, the defending champion in the tournament, made its debut with a sterling 26-0 win over Bulgaria.
Eight different players notched hat tricks for England, with Alex Russell leading all attackers with three goals and five assists. Daniel Watson added three goals and four assists.
England is tied with Latvia atop an exciting Pool F at 1-0, while Finland and the Netherlands also each have a win.
Scotland rebounded after a day one defeat to put away Norway, 12-4 with a strong second half.
Norway cut the lead to 5-3 around halfway through the third quarter but Scotland reeled off four goals to put the game out of reach.
Daniel McQuade and Ethan Swenson each scored three and Elias Cross provided three assists. Tobias Ross-Cleaver made 12 saves including seven in an impactful second quarter.
Edvard Liljedal Jonberg made 11 saves for Norway.
Israel, a top-ten finisher at the 2023 Men’s Championship, opened its tournament in Wroclaw with a 17-5 win over Portugal.
Eleven different players found the net for Israel, with Beau Chetner racking up five goals and Ryan Cohen adding a goal and three assists.
Michael Hawkins recorded four points for Portgual.
Israel now is tied with Switzerland at 1-0 in Pool E while Scotland also has a win.
Italy, another top-ten finisher at the 2023 Men’s Championship, held off Greece 14-8 in its debut.
Greece scored five of the last seven goals, but Italy’s strong first half coupled with a 4-0 run in five minutes in the third quarter was more than enough on the day.
John Piatelli delivered six points for Italy and Tiberiu Sirbu stepped up with four goals.
Italy has one win in Pool D, with France at 2-0 and Slovakia at 1-1.
France became the first team in the championship to reach two wins with a 12-5 win over a Slovakia side that also won its opener.
Slovakia led 3-1 early but France went on a 10-goal run over 24 minutes of action fueled by a strong attacking quartet.
Gabriel Furey and Lucas Menendez both posted two-goal, two-assist lines while Lucas Goeller added three and James Barlow scored two.
Anthony John Babony made 17 saves for Slovakia.
France leads Pool D with Italy right behind at 1-0.
Poland rebounded from its opening day defeat to Czechia to grind out an 8-4 win over Spain.
Poland led 4-1 after 15 minutes and rode its defensive superiority for the rest of the game.
Spain made late inroads in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 6-4, but Matthew Dyszkiewicz slameed the door shut with two goals in three quick minutes to finish off his hat trick.
Lucas Hucal also added three points for Poland. Christian Dzwilewski turned in an imperious showing in net, making 16 saves on 20 shots from Spain.
Spain’s goalkeeper Paul Alexandro Walter Diaz made 12 saves of his own for a 60% save percentage.
Germany opened its tournament with a 23-3 win over Ukraine to keep pace in Pool B.
Lasse Volquardsen and Marc Brandenburger each finished with four-point, five-assist outings in the win. Soren Spiegel also had five goals.
Jay Blasko made 10 saves for Ukraine.
Germany is now tied with Czechia at 1-0 in an exciting race in Pool B, with Poland just behind at 1-1. Germany will face both teams in the next two days.
The Netherlands bounced back from an opening day defeat to upend Finland 11-7 and spoil the Finn’s chances of improving to 2-0.
The two teams were neck and neck throughout the first half and three minutes into the third quarter, Finland kept within touching distance with a goal to trail 6-5.
But Jake Reed Bowman scored twice and Alderik Rafiq van der Heyde added a goal and an assist in a four-minute span to give the Netherlands its needed padding.
Bowman’s five points were instrumental for the Dutch in the win, as were goalkeeper Urney Russel Lambertus Albertsz’ 12 saves.
Lauri Uusitalo made 10 saves for Finland.
Both teams are 1-1 in Pool A, trailing Latvia and England.
