With the afternoon session now underway on an exciting second day of the 2022 European Junior Team Championships, we take a look at the results as some teams already take the lead in the group stage.

Young players from all over Europe yesterday kicked off the 2022 European Junior Team Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. The morning started with groups one, two, and seven facing their first matches, making France coming out as the leading country of Group 1, Denmark in Group 2, and Switzerland 7.

In the afternoon, it was the turn of Groups 3 and 4, with Germany turning out to be the country with the most points of Group 3, and the Netherlands becoming the leading country of Group 4. Closing the day, the remaining groups competed with Poland being the top group in Group 5, Ukraine in Group 6, and England in Group 8.

We’re already on the second day of the three-day group stage and the pressure is on to take those important points to be gained before Sunday. The hosts, who had won 5-0 against Greece yesterday, had to face a strong German team this morning. Viktor Petrovic/ Andjela Vitman and Vitman again with her women’s doubles partner Sanja Peric, took their matches to three games, but Germany’s players still got to take the wins to end the clash 5-0 to Germany.

Serbia, who is now second in their group, will be playing their last match of the group stage tomorrow against Portugal, a team who had a good day today after a 5-0 win against Greece. Just like Serbia, they lost yesterday to Germany with no wins, so we will have to see who will take the second spot in tomorrow’s match.

Italy was one win away from winning their first team match of the event against Spain yesterday, but they eventually lost 2-3. Similarly, it was another loss for the Italian team today against the Netherlands, 2-3. After a great performance from Italy’s Gianna Stiglich who made it 1-1, fellow team member Luca Zhou got off to a good start with a win in the first game of the men’s singles match against Noah Hasse, but the Dutch player bounced back to take the win for his team. 

Emma Piccinin/ Gianna Stiglich also gave a good fight, but Kirsten De Wit/ Meerte Loos stopped them from equalising the score and taking away their chance of winning the team match. Despite their win today, it is not the Netherlands in the lead in Group 4. Spain, who already had a win from yesterday, took the top spot after another dominant performance against Israel today.

Amir Shapira, Israel, gave his team the first important win of the clash. Next up, in the women’s singles, Spain’s Cristina Teruel defeated Alina Bergelson, who won a close second game but couldn’t close the match with a win. Daniel Franco/ Rodrigo Sanjurjo made it 2-1 for Spain in yet another three-game match, and the Spaniards went on to win the two remaining matches.

Who will win today? The afternoon session is still on, with Groups 5 and 6 playing right now. You can watch all matches live on www.badmintoneurope.tv.