Germany held off Spain’s challenge to win the top prize.
| Photo Credit: R. RAGU
Spain’s Andres Medina fluffed his chance in the shootout, and he bent down in disappointment only to be consoled by his teammates.
On the other hand, it was ecstasy for Germany as the teammates rushed to the goalkeeper Jasper Ditzer to celebrate.
It was not the usual ruthless Germany one witnessed, rather a gritty one. The defending champion survived several anxious moments in the regulation time (1-1) and then held its nerve in the shootout to win 3-2 to clinch its eighth title in the final of the FIH junior men’s hockey World Cup at the SDAT-Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium here on Wednesday.
The underdog was certainly Spain and it was fantastic at the regulation time, defending exceptionally well, making the champion team look pedestrian in most of the quarters.
The shootout had a nervy start as both the players from Germany (Jonas von Gersum) and Spain (Pere Amat) hit their shots wide. After Germany’s Justus Warweg shot was saved by ‘keeper Diego Palomero, Spain scored through Mario Mena to go 1-0 ahead.
Germany equalised through Benedict Geyer. When the scores reading 2-2, Germany pulled one through Ben Hasbach, and the moment Medina missed his, it was curtains for Spain.
Stirring fightback
Earlier, India came roaring back from being 0-2 to script a sensational 4-2 victory over Argentina to bag the bronze medal.
The Indian team fought back to beat Argentina to win the bronze medal.
| Photo Credit:
R. RAGU
After defeats in the third-place playoff in 2005, 2021 and 2023, this marked India’s first bronze medal in the competition and its first medal since the gold in 2016. Incidentally, all of India’s goals came in the fourth quarter of which three were from penalty corners.
India scored two brilliantly deflected PC goals; one by Ankit Pal and the other by Manmeet Singh. The third goal, that too off a PC was a direct dragflick conversion by Anmol Ekka.
India head coach P. R. Sreejesh said the boys handled the pressure well. “I felt like [we were] a different team in the fourth quarter. It’s a process. You need to trust your process first. I told these guys is, if you can survive this pressure, this is the base. It was not easy for them. But they won the challenge. Because this is what is going to happen in the future. The win happened because we did our homework. We planned everything. We had enough meetings. We had a training session this morning. We did everything for this.”
The results: Final: Germany 1 (Justus Warweg 25) drew with Spain 1 (Nicolas Mustaros 32). Germany won the shoootout 3-2.
Bronze medal match: India 4 (Ankit Pal 48-PC, Manmeet Singh 51-PC, Sharda Nand Tiwari 56-PS, Anmol Ekka-57-PC) bt Argentina 2 (Nicolas Rodriguez 2-PS, Santiago Fernandez 43).
Published – December 11, 2025 12:12 am IST
