EUROPEANS – Ireland and Spain steal the show.

In this mornings session Russia defeated Belarus to claim the top spot in group 4 and advance to the quarter final where they will meet the winners of the Germany V Sweden in Group 3. Ukraine topped group 7 to set up a potential ¼ final against England and Denmark stamped their authority on group 1 with an easy win over Slovenia while in the same group Ireland and Spain fought out a titanic battle in a match that lasted 3 hours 35 minutes on court number 5.

By Mark Phelan (Live) Photos: badmintonphoto.com (Live in Liverpool)

Russia are the first team to progress to the quarter finals as they defeated their nearest rivals in group 4 Belarus 5-0. After stuttering in the opening set of the opening match Ekaterina Aninina and Ivan Sozonov composed their nerves to take the remaining sets and the game to give Russia a 1-0 lead. The rest of the Russian team capitalized on the good work of their opening mixed doubles as Russia won the remaining 4 matches without dropping a set to move untroubled into the quarter final.

Ukraine were hot on the heels of the Russians as they booked their quarter final spot with a 4-1 win over Iceland. After beating Italy and Hungary 5-0 it was not until the very last match that Ukraine dropped their very first point of the tournament as they failed in their effort to capture a three in a row 5-0 whitewash.

Denmark continued on their merry way with a 5-0 win over group 1 outsiders Slovenia. In the process the Danes blooded Jan O Jorgensen (photo top left) in the men’s singles and introduced world number 1 Tine Rasmussen albeit in the unfamiliar position as partner to Marie Ropke in the women’s doubles. Jorgensen captured the first men’s singles point for Denmark after the defeat of Joachim Persson yesterday. The Danish world number 34 beat Luka Petric 21-13 21-11 in the opening match. Nanna Brosolat Jensen won her second match in two days but had to fight hard against Slovenia premier women’s singles player Maja Tvrdy.

“I felt really good on court and I really like this hall as in some ways it is great preparation for the upcoming All England’s. I probably need to get on track again after my poor performance at the nationals so this win has been important to me for that reason. We are playing well as a team and we are motivated to win this tournament as anything less would be a disaster” commented Jorgensen after his debut win

Without doubt the game of the session was Ireland and Spain as their marathon match went right down to the wire as all but 1 game went to three sets. Pablo Abian and Scott Evans served up a badminton delight that lasted an hour. Evans took the first set 21-15 but Abian, spurred on by his victory over Joachim Persson yesterday, fought back to take the second and third 21-19 21-19 to give Spain a slender lead. Anything Abian could do Chloe Magee could do as she also fought back from a set down to take the women’s singles in the deciding set. In the men’s doubles Evans and Sam Magee teamed up to blast past Pablo Abian and Carlos Longo in two 21-8 21-17 and Spain immediately bounced back to take the women’s doubles again in another three set battle. The tie now hung in the balance with only the mixed doubles up for grabs. With all other matches over on the 5 adjoining courts the brother sister duo of Sam and Chloe Magee (photo right) pitted their skills against Spanish pair Carlos Longo and Haidee Ojeda. The Spanish took the opening set 21-16 but the Irish battled back into the game with a 21-12 win in the second. The final set was a cliff-hanger as both pairs battled with their countries pride on there sleeves and with the attention of the whole stadium firmly fixed on the final few points it was the Irish, at 20-20, who seized the initiative and took the next two points to claim an historic victory for the small Island nation.

“This is amazing for Ireland and amazing for our young team. We have such a great team spirit going and to win that third set in that final match was as about as good as I have ever felt on a badminton court. There is such an amazing buzz within this squad and now we can go and enjoy the game against Denmark later and who knows what might happen” said an elated Chloe Magee after her epic doubles win in this mornings match