Championships and playoff games headlined another busy weekend in AFI’s Recap of the football action in Europe

AFI | American Football | 07/21/2021

Graphic: Igor Lazarevic

It was another busy weekend of football in Europe with a pair of championship games as well as playoff games and regular-season matchups.

The Polish Bowl and the Italian Bowl headlined a weekend that also saw the Austrian Football League semifinals being played as well as regular-season action in the Czech League of American Football, the European League of Football and Switzerland’s National League.

Austria

The Dacia Vienna Vikings punched their ticket to the Austrian Bowl but they needed a last-second effort from their defense to do so and defeat the Projekt Spielberg Graz Giants 21-18.

The Swarco Raiders atoned for the two straight losses they suffered to end the Austrian Football League season by defeating the SsangYong Danube Dragons 31-20 in Innsbruck and qualify for the Austrian Bowl for the 17th time in their history.

Czech Republic

The Prague Lions improved to 2-0 with a 52-7 pasting of the winless Brno Alligators in the Czech League of American Football.

The Vysocina Gladiators defeated the Ostrava Steelers 33-18 to remain unbeaten in the Czech League and in a tied for first with the Prague Lions.

European League of Football

The Hamburg Sea Devils scored early and often to take advantage of an injury-ravaged Leipzig Kings team in the European League of Football, ELF, blanking the Kings 55-0.

Also in the ELF, the Frankfurt Galaxy fell behind 7-0 to the Barcelona Dragons and then took over, jumping out to a 21-12 first-half lead, increasing it to 42-12 by the end of the third quarter before easing off to win 42-22.

The Wroclaw Panthers simply overwhelmed the Berlin Thunder jumping out to a 31-6 third-quarter lead before the Dragons found some life on offense but it was not enough as the Polish team captured its third win of the ELF season.

Finland

The Wasa Royals took advantage of a Seinäjoki Crocodiles squad playing without their starting quarterback taking a 15-6 lead before Seinäjoki narrowed the gap to 15-13 late in the game. This was the Royals first win of the season.

The Kuopio Steelers simply overwhelmed the Helsinki Wolverines in all phases of the game en route to an easy 44-6 victory in Finland’s Maple League.

The Helsinki Roosters are clearly intent on recapturing the Finnish title after a 57-6 thrashing of the United Newland Crusaders in the Maple League.

Italy

In the most exciting game of the weekend, the Parma Panthers needed overtime to defeat the Milano Seamen 40-34 to capture the Italian title for the first time since 2013.

Poland

The Bydgoszcz Archers finished the Polish Football League with an unblemished record after downing the Tychy Falcons to win their first ever Polish championship.

Switzerland

The Geneva Seahawks improved their record in the Swiss National League with a 33-17 win over the Winterthur Warriors who lost their second straight game of the young season.

The Calanda Broncos took a 21-7 first half lead over the Basel Gladiators and simply kept the pressure on in the second half to come away with a comfortable 48-22 victory in Switzerland’s National League.