England Hockey Women have finished fourth in the Euro Championship in Antwerp after Spain clinched the win in a penalty shootout. 

The bronze medal match finished in a 1-1 draw with forward Hannah Martin scoring England’s only goal, after Sarah Evans grabbed possession from Spain’s tentative defence.

England led 2-1 during the shootout but failed to finish on a high after the Spanish continued to find the back of the net, ending in a 3-2 defeat.

During the first half England looked strong across all areas of the pitch. But after the break Spain fought hard and drew level within six minutes.

Maria Tost deflected a hard ball from Begona Garcia who lined the pass perfectly at the top of the attacking circle

Captain Hollie Pearne-Webb said: “I think we are disappointed with the whole tournament in general for us. We’ve got a lot to work on when we get home."

England suffered an unfortunate thrashing against the Netherlands in the semi-final. This is the first time they haven’t finished in the top three in an international event since 2003.

“We had some very honest conversations [after the semi's] about what went wrong and what needed to change. That was a huge step up in performance and now we need to make another step up,” she added.

Goalkeepers Maddie Hinch for England and Maria Ruiz for Spain made countless saves throughout the game, giving neither side an opportunity to be dominant in the contest for the bronze medal.

For head coach Mark Hager it was his first international tournament with the England women.

He said: “Today was probably our best performance [during the tournament] but we need to be consistent and score more than one goal if we want to win games.

“It’s a positive that we got in the top four and we exposed some young kids to this level as well.”

In order for England to have a chance to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics they will now compete in a two-legged qualifier at home this autumn.