Four play-in winners at the 2025 European Men’s Lacrosse Championship – Czechia, France, Ireland and Latvia – moved an important step closer to qualification for the 2027 World Lacrosse Men’s Championship
Czechia ousted Wales in an overtime epic, and France hung on for a one-goal win against Switzerland. Latvia narrowly pulled out a tough win against Scotland in stormy conditions in Wroclaw, while Ireland cruised against Poland.
The teams will compete in the quarterfinals against the top four seeds from pool play in England, Germany, Israel, and Italy.
The top seven teams overall will qualify for the 2027 Men’s Championship in Japan, awarded to the four quarterfinal winners, the two teams that advance in placement play to the fifth place game, and the winner of the seventh place game.
Wednesday’s quarterfinal matchups, listed in CEST (GMT +2) are as follows:
- England vs. France // 9:50 a.m.
- Israel vs. Latvia // 11:30 a.m.
- Italy vs. Czechia // 4:30 p.m.
- Germany vs. Ireland // 7 p.m.
Elsewhere around the championship, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Spain and Greece all won in placement play towards 13th place.
Recaps from the play-in games can be found below with photos from the placement games:
Play-In Round: FRA-SUI | IRL-POL | LAT-SCO | CZE-WAL
Placement Play-In Round: SVK-SWE | NED-NOR | CRO-ESP | GRE-FIN
Statistics throughout the championship are available at worldlacrosse.sport/emlc25, as well as the full schedule for Thursday. Live streaming is free at WL TV and LAX TV.
France’s second half flurry helped secure the first play-in victory of the day over Switzerland, 8-7.
Switzerland overcame a 4-1 deficit to lead 5-4 three minutes into the second half, but France scored four goals in the next 17 minutes with two goals and an assist from Gabriel Furey in the pivotal run.
Switzerland clawed back two goal in the final minutes but could not force overtime.
Furey finished with five points and Justin Rosenberg added three. Joseph Varela was crucial for France with 10 saves on 17 shots faced.
France will face England in the first quarterfinal tomorrow.
Ireland continued its undefeated campaign in Wroclaw after taking the spot in Pool C with a comfortable 10-3 win over Poland to advance to the quarterfinals.
Liam Horkan answered the call with two goals and three assists for Ireland, as the defense as a whole held Poland to just 10 shots total.
Ireland set up a blockbuster match against the also-undefeated Germany on Wednesday in the last quarterfinal of the day.
Latvia scored four goals in the first quarter, and rode out a tricky storm and a Scotland comeback to secure a 6-4 play-in win.
Scotland cut the lead to 4-2 before Latvia answered with five minutes left in the second quarter. Neither team would score for nearly 20 minutes of action, but Scotland forced the issue late, cutting the lead to one in the final 12 minutes.
Austin Blumbergs scored a key insurance goal and Latvia held on with a clean final 10 minutes.
Ryan Richters’ heroics were decisive again for Latvia with nine saves on 13 shots on goal.
Christian MacKinnon finished with three points for Scotland.
Latvia earned a matchup against Israel in the second quarterfinal of the day on Wednesday.
Czechia escaped Wales in overtime, 9-8 in the most dramatic game of the championship so far.
Starting after a lightning delay and a heavy storm, Czechia had its way in the first half, entering the break up 6-2.
Wales roared back to the life in the third quarter and scored four in a row to trail by one at 7-6. Czechia added a goal but Wales again dug deep for two late goals in the final two minutes to knot the game at 8-8.
But in overtime, Pavel Srch netted the golden goal for the Czechs in a pulsating 9-8 win.
Caiden Vlasimsky finished with four for Czechia and Srch added two. Goalkeeper Jakob Malasek made 10 saves.
Czechia will face Italy in the third quarterfinal.
Slovakia defeated Sweden in placement play 17-5, behind five points from Samuel Postma and four goals from Griffin Schutz.
The Netherlands handled Norway 11-7 in placement play with a 5-0 second half run.
Alderik Rafik van der Heyde notched four points and goalkeeper Urney Russel Lambertus Albertsz made 10 saves.
Spain took care of Croatia 12-5, spurred by a six-point showing from Matthew Napolitano and 13 saves from Paul Alexandro Walter Diaz.
Greece earned a hard-fought 9-5 win over Finland with a four-point display from Anthony Tsakos and a strong day on face offs between Emmanuel Nikitiades and Sam Stephan.
