The EHF always recommends that hosts try where possible to make sure that the hotel is close by the pitch when hosting events…
And it seems that Oranje Zwart, who are hosting the EHL KO16, KO8 and Final 4 have taken this advice to the absolute max! The view here is from the 12th floor of the Van de Valk in Eindhoven, prefect for lazy spectators!
The view pitch side though is even better as the games are hotting up towards the Final of the EHL 2013/14 and we now know that one of these teams will lift the Alain Danet Trophy…
Real Club de Polo, Waterloo Ducks, Racing Club de Bruxelles and Oranje Zwart are in the quarter-finals.
At day two of the EHL four more clubs reached the K08. Real Club de Polo, Waterloo Ducks, Racing Club de Bruxelles and home favourites Oranje Zwart produced the goods on day two of the KO16 to earn their place in Friday’s quarter-finals following another breath-taking day of action in Eindhoven. Yesterday Club de Campo, Harvestehuder, Rotterdam and Dragons already advanced to the last eight of Europe’s top club competition.
Polo opened day two of the KO16 as they held Reading at bay 4-2 to progress to tomorrow’s quarter-finals. Polo produced a superb first half performance to build a 3-0 lead via Roger Padros, David Alegre and Manel Terraza. Reading got a lifeline in the third quarter when Andy Watts scored and Nick Catlin made it even closer but with both sides serving suspensions and Reading withdrawing their goalkeeper, Xavi Lleonart managed to wriggle free down the left and roll home to make it 4-2 with 60 seconds to go and land victory.
Next up, Jeremy Gucasoff made a couple of brilliant saves to help Racing club de Bruxelles beat KTHC Rot Weiss Koln 3-2 on penalties after normal time had ended 2-2, pushing them through to Friday’s KO8. Racing led the game twice in the first half, first via Anthony Versluys and subsequently from Thomas Vanneste to counter-act Marco Miltkau’s 34th minute goal. Miltkau scored once again in the second half, though, to tie things up and send the game to penalties where the Belgian side prevailed. The Belgian dominance continued in game three as the Waterloo Ducks became the third side from the country to reach the KO8 stage of the Euro Hockey League as they saw off Beeston 4-3 amid a stunning final quarter of four goals.
Sam Ward’s deflected effort had given the Bees a dream start with one of the quickest goals in EHL history after just 15 seconds. But Nicolas Vandiest turned the tie on its head with two close range goals before Alexandre de Paeuw and Gilles Jacob made it 4-1 with five minutes to go. Beeston fought back brilliantly with Ward completing his hat-trick but they ran out of time and saw their hopes extinguished.
Oranje Zwart completed the KO8 line-up with a hard-fought victory over a well-structured and tough to break down Surbiton who made life very difficult but ultimately fought their way through 3-1. They ended the first half level at 1-1 but goals from Rob Reckers and Mink van der Weerden in the second half gave them the win.
What’s next?
Next on the agenda is the quarter-finals with some mouth-watering ties.
Club de Campo start off against Harvestehuder at 11.30am (CET), followed by the Belgian derby between Racing Bruxelles and Waterloo Ducks at 2pm. Rotterdam meet Dragons in game three and OZ face Real Club de Polo in the last game of the day.
More information about all the games including full reports and video highlights of all the matches can be found at www.ehlhockey.tv, the official website of the Euro Hockey League.
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