The final day of action at Royal Park I Roveri Golf club started not with the final, but the resumption of the previous round of matches.
Due to heavy thunderstorms on Friday evening in Italy, the two semi-final matches between Estonia/ Sweden and the Netherlands/ Germany were unable to finish, with roughly 10 holes to play in the former and 14 in the latter.
On Saturday morning, the Dutch held their two-point lead over Germany, earned from Friday morning's foursomes matches, while Sweden held off Estonia to also book a place in the match for the title.
Due to the delay in the schedule, the championship match was contested in a reduced 1-foursomes, 4-singles format, with all six of the teams' players involved in the session.
Around halfway into the final, matches 1, 4 and 5 had big score differences, two to the Netherlands and one to Sweden, with matches 3 and 4 between Benjamin Reuter (NED)/ Daniel Svārd (SWE) and Loran Appel (NED)/ Jakob Melin (SWE) too close to call.
Those matches finished as expected, taking the score to 2-1 in favour of the Netherlands, who found themselves just one point away from their first ever European Amateur Team Championship win.
Although Daniel Svärd took the initiatve in his match halfway into the back-nine, with birdies on the tricky 14th and long par-3 15th, unmatched by his opponent. He would close out his match on the 17th to put the score at 2-2, leaving the title down to the match betweeen Appel and Melin.
The Dutch player lost the 14th with a bogey to go 1-down, but a birdie on the 16th brough the match back to all-square with two to play. No quicker did Appel put himself back in the match than did he give the initiative away. A lost ball from the tee on 17, despite the entire Dutch and Swedish camps following the match helping search for it, opened the door for Melin to re-take the lead.
The Swede nearly let the opportunity by, with an approach that flew the green, and also the greenside bunker, and his opponent staring down a 10-foot putt for bogey. A delicate chip, and a 20-foot putt for par gave Melin a 1-up lead going down the last.
Both player left their 2nd shots into the par-5 18th just short of the green. Melin chipped first and nearly holed out, but left himself a downhill 6-footer for birdie.
Appel chipped to gimmie range, leaving a championship putt for his opponent.
Melin roled it in the centre to claim a 1-up win, and Sweden's first European Team Championship victory since 2019.
In the match for third place, Estonia, whose 4th place finish is by far the best result the team has ever achieved in the event, couldn't kep up with Germany, who took the final spot on the podium.
