Ireland will play Malta this evening at the Sport Ireland Campus on the opening day of the EuroHockey Championship Qualifier B.
Wales, Turkey, Czechia, Poland, Italy and Luxembourg are also involved in what is a straight knock out tournament.
The winners will qualify next year’s showcase event in Mönchengladbach, playing against the leading teams in European Hockey.
Ireland, at number 9 in the world, are the highest ranked of the teams taking part and with home advantage, hopes are high that this will prove a winning series in front of an enthusiastic home crowd.
The teams finishing in second to fifth places will get a spot at Championship II in 2025 with sixth to eighth going to Championship III.
Thursday’s quarter-finals see Wales face Luxembourg who contest their first ever international fixture. Czechia take on Türkiye, Italy meet Poland before Ireland face Malta.
If Ireland beat Malta this evening they will play the winners of Italy (world ranked 27) and Poland (world ranked 28) for a place in the final.
That semi final will be played on Saturday at 14:15 with the final then on Sunday at 16:00.
Each game will be streamed live on www.eurohockeytv.org on a pay-per-view basis for €9.99 for a weekend pass.
“We have to win this tournament in order to return to the European A Division Championship in 2025,” said men’s Head Coach Mark Tumilty.
“We were relegated from that Division in 2019. The way the format is structured for the tournament is such, that if we qualify for 2025, we will also qualify to be in the A Championships that’s being expanded in 2027.”
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