Belgian duo Racing Bruxelles and Dragons, Germany’s Harvestehuder and host club Oranje Zwart have all qualified for the Euro Hockey League semi-finals on Easter Sunday.
In today’s first quarter-final Hamburg’s Harvestehuder scored three times in the closing quarter to run out 4-1 winners over Madrid’s Club de Campo. Johan Bjorkman scored twice, the second coming eight minutes from the end, to make it 2-0 before Ruben Mulder got one back. But two last gasp goals saw the Germans storm over the line.
Racing Bruxelles produced a superb team performance to outdo Belgian champions the Waterloo Ducks 4-2 in the second KO8 tie of the day. The Racing Rats came from 2-1 behind at half-time to produce some of their best hockey and progress with Anthony Versluys, Scott Tupper and Cedric Charlier making the game safe.
In the third quarter-final, Dragons stunned Rotterdam with a backs-to-the-wall 1-0 win as they withstood a late onslaught to keep alive their chances of returning to the Euro Hockey League final for a second successive year.
Felix Denayer’s second quarter goal was all that stood between the teams as he finished off Louis Rombout’s excellent right wing cross and it ended up being the only goal of high octane battle.
Oranje Zwart eventually prevailed in the day’s final action ahead of Real Club de Polo on a penalty shoot-out. Normal time had finished 0-0 win a tense and physical tussle between two well-matched teams. In the shoot-out, Dutch stars Jelle Galema, Sander Baart and Bob de Voogd held their nerve to win it 3-1 and take their place in the final four.
To watch: Final Four matches at Easter Sunday
11am CET Racing Club de Bruxelles vs Harvestehuder
2pm CET KHC Dragons vs Oranje Zwart
See www.ehlhockey.tv
