Gantoise and
Hamburger Polo Club stormed into the EHL Men’s FINAL8 for the first time as
they picked up victories over AH&BC Amsterdam and Lisnagarvey Hockey Club
on day two in Hamburg.
Gantoise reached the EHL Men’s FINAL8 with a dramatic shoot-out
win over AH&BC Amsterdam in Hamburg. Tomi Santiago produced an immaculate
pair of saves to help them win out 4-2, matching his heroics during normal time
as they came back from a goal down to draw 1-1.
In the first half, the goalkeeper made a string of good stops as
Amsterdam came on strong, creating many chances, the pick of the blocks denying
Valentin Verga with a cracking hit at goal.
Verga did play a central part in putting the Dutch side in front
six minutes into the second half, stealing the ball on the 23-metre line before
laying off for Mirco Pruijser to flick in from close range.
Gantoise responded brilliantly with Roman Duvekot drawing a
double save from Joren Romijn and then got the levelling goal when he got a
lovely touch to Guillaume Hellin’s pass into the circle.
It came during a fine spell of pressure with both having chances
to win it; neither went in, so it went to a shoot-out where Gantoise scored
all four of their efforts. In reply, Santiago denied both Verga and Boris
Burkhardt to send them through to next Easter’s finale.
In the second KO8 fixture, Kane Russell’s penalty corner quartet
propelled Hamburger Polo Club into next Easter’s FINAL8 of the EHL Men’s
competition as they pulled clear of Ireland’s Lisnagarvey 7-1.
It completed a perfect week in Hamburg for the club as they
backed up their 4-0 victory over Wimbledon with another strong win in their
debut campaign, much to the delight of their noisy green and red fans.
Russell had them on the scoreboard within two minutes with a
typical penalty corner goal. The New Zealander was at it again before the end
of the first quarter, making it 2-0 to build a commanding lead which they held
until half-time.
Garvey, though, fought hard and were back in the game early in the second half
when Ollie Kidd scrambled in from close range, cutting the gap to 2-1.
But a spectacular Russell third goal in the 35th minute from yet
another corner restored a comfortable wedge, 3-1 going into the final quarter.
Kane varied the move for the fourth goal from a set piece,
dummying past the first runner before flicking in from mid-circle. After that,
the Irish side ran out of legs, and Polo took advantage.
Hugo Inglis got their first from open play and Jan-Hendrik
Bartels added another a couple of seconds later. Constantin Staib scored his
third of the competition to close out the 7-1 success.
Wimbledon netted four times in an 11-minute second-half spell to
land the Ranking Points from their encounter against CA Montrouge, winning out
5-3.
Noah Darlington had opened the scoring in the first quarter for
the English club but two goals in quick succession from Fabien Mazurier and
Lucas Montecot swapped the lead in the moments before half-time.
Ben Hooper’s sharp touch got Wimbledon back level only for Louis
Poupee to whip in a penalty corner for a 3-2 Montrouge lead. The Londoners,
however, built up a head of steam with Ben Francis, Ed Horler and David Condon
all netting to win a frenzied fixture.
Earlier, Lille MHC picked up their first EHL victory as they got
the best of Rotweiss Wettingen in a dramatic shoot-out to open day two in
Hamburg.
The French side led twice courtesy of low drag-flicks from
Viktor Lockwood, picking out the bottom corner in the first quarter for an
early lead. Jonas Winkler countered with a similar effort, whipping in a
similar low drag which made its way through Corentin Saunier.
Lockwood restored the gap with another corner flick before
half-time for a 2-1 lead and it stayed that way until 110 seconds from the
final whistle. Winkler produced a moment of magic on the right baseline to
slide home the leveller at 2-2.
In the shoot-out, though, Lille were perfect with three from
three while Saunier kept out all of the Wettingen efforts to win out 3-0.
These results mean Lisnagarvey and AH&BC Amsterdam will earn their nations
9th place overall, Lille and Wimbledon take 13th; Rotweiss Wettingen and
CA Montrouge are 17th.
Saturday sees eight new teams enter the stage with Old Georgian’s making their
debut against SV Arminen, Slavia Prague and Pinoké also have their first EHL
games while Real Club de Polo face Club Egara in a feisty Spanish battle. The
day concludes with Harvestehuder THC hosting Western Wildcats.
List of broadcast outlets
EHL Men KO16 fixture
schedule (all at Harvestehuder THC, Hamburg)
September 29th 2022
– LILLE 1 (A
Bonomi) AH&BC AMSTERDAM 6 (RP Singh 2, B Burkhardt 2, M Dawson, M
Pruijser)
– ROTWEISS WETTINGEN
0 GANTOISE 7 (R Duvekot 3, H Molenaer, L Madeley, S Murray, T Clément)
– CA MONTROUGE
0 LISNAGARVEY 4 (J Corry, T Chambers, A Williamson, D Nelson)
– WIMBLEDON
0 HAMBURGER POLO CLUB 4 (C Staib 2, P Smith, K Russell)
September 30th 2022
– Ranking Match:
LILLE MHC 2 (V Lockwood 2) ROTWEISS WETTINGEN 2 (J Winkler 2), Lille win
shoot-out 3-0
– KO8: AH&BC
AMSTERDAM 1 (M Pruijser) GANTOISE 1 (R Duvekot), Gantoise win shoot-out
4-2
– Ranking Match: CA
MONTROUGE 3 ( WIMBLEDON (Ranking match)
– KO8: LISNAGARVEY 1
(O Kidd) HAMBURGER POLO CLUB (K Russell 4, H Inglis, J-H Bartels, C
Staib)
October 1st 2022
09 10:30 SV ARMINEN v
OLD GEORGIANS (KO16)
10 12:45 PINOKE v SK
SLAVIA PRAGUE (KO16)
11 15:00 REAL CLUB DE
POLO v CLUB EGARA (KO16)
12 17:15 WESTERN
WILDCATS v HARVESTEHUDER THC (KO16)
October 2nd 2022
13 09:45 Loser M10 v
Loser M9 (Ranking match)
14 12:00 Winner M10 v
Winner M9 (KO8)
15 14:15 Loser M11 v
Loser M12 (Ranking match)
16 16:30 Winner M11 v
Winner M12 (KO8)
EHLHockeyTV
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