The IFAF Women’s European Championships silver medal is up for grabs at Sixways Stadium in Worcester on Saturday when Great Britain hosts Finland at 5 pm local time.
Spain were crowned European champions back in April when a thrilling 21-16 victory over Great Britain on a night of high drama in Calatayud secured an unassailable 3-0 record. Considered underdogs as newcomers to the tournament, head coach Manuel Ibañez’s charges claimed a third-straight victory having previously beaten Germany and reigning champions Finland.
Now Great Britain and Finland target the runners up spot in the final game of the tournament, though the outcome could be far from simple, and Germany could also end up with the bronze medal.
A Finnish win will secure second place overall with Germany climbing into third place and Great Britain missing out on a medal. A win by the hosts will result in a series of tiebreakers being applied to separate the tree nations whose win-loss record would be identical.
If Great Britain wins by 6 points or less then Finland takes silver, Great Britain bronze, and Germany will finish fourth on points differential.
If Great Britain wins by 8 points but by less than 25 points, they will claim silver, while Finland takes bronze. A home win by more than 26 points bumps Germany up into third place.
A Great Britain win by 7 points would remove Germany from the equation out of the tie, and GB would win the head-to-head tiebreaker along with silver, while Finland settles for bronze. Finally, in the event there is a home win by 25 points, that would be enough to take second place overall, while Finland would edge Germany into third place.
The good news is that the respective teams are simply focused on taking care of business.
“We’re going to fight for every yard on the field, and I believe that, as a team, we’ll be wearing silver medals around our necks after the match,” said Finland coach Samu Juppo.
“This match is sure to be another tough physical battle, just like all our previous international games against them have been. It’s great that we’ve now been able to include players from the U.S. leagues in our squad. We did have a few withdrawals at the end of the season, but we’ve still got a solid group together.
“The British team has a very strong offensive line and at the running back, with the well-known Ruth Matta. They’ve shown extremely strong offensive play in their previous matches. On defense, they also have several good players, so our offense is going to face a tough challenge as well.”
Great Britain linebacker Bethany Pilkington emphasized the importance of playing on home soil after a loss to Spain, saying: “Doing it on home soil in front of friends and family is really important to us. Being able to give back to your friends and supporters is a big moment.
“Having a refresh, going back to our playbooks, to our training, levelling ourselves back out and being ready to play Finland is a big deal for us. We want to go out with a bang. As a team we want to prove that we can win, and we will win, and we deserve that second place.”