Line-ups confirmed for next Easter’s ABN AMRO EHL FINAL8

The line-up for the ABN AMRO EHL FINAL8 was confirmed with the clubs for the men’s and women’s competitions next Easter now set in stone.

Spain’s Real Club de Polo, England’s Old Georgians, the Netherlands’ SV Kampong and Belgium’s Royal Léopold all advanced from the EHL Men KO16 competition. They will now join the pre-qualified Pinoké, Rot-Weiss Köln, Gantoise, Club de Campo de Madrid.

On the women’s side, the FINAL8 participants will be AH&BC Amsterdam and SCHC from the Netherlands, Junior FC and Club de Campo from Spain, Germany’s Mannheimer HC, Belgium’s Gantoise, England’s East Grinstead and Ireland’s Loreto.

The most recent qualifications came following an intense KO16 weekend in Barcelona. Polo got the best of CAM 92 with four second half goals on Friday to win 4-1 before edging out Holcombe 1-0 thanks to a Guillermo Fortuño goal just 28 seconds into their contest.

Old Georgians will play in the FINAL8 for the first time thanks to a huge 5-1 win over Mannheimer HC and then a 3-2 battle against Waterloo Ducks.

For Léo, they won a high octane victory against Harvestehuder THC 1-0 before being pushed all the way by Austrian champions Post SV, prevailing 3-1.

Kampong were the final side to confirm their place. In one of the highlights of the weekend, they ended Bloemendaal’s winning streak in the EHL on Saturday evening with a 2-1 success. They backed that up with a late flourish, defeating Western Wildcats 11-0.

It means the EHL FINAL8 Men will have two teams from the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain along with one each from Germany and England.

For the EHL Men Ranking Table, meanwhile, the respective performances of each participant saw the following final positions confirmed:

• 9^th overall – Waterloo Ducks (BEL), Holcombe (ENG), Post SV (AUT), Western Wildcats (SCO)
• 13^th overall – Mannheimer HC (GER), CAM 92 (FRA), Harvestehuder THC (GER), HC Bloemendaal (NED)
• 17^th overall – Banbridge (IRL), Racing Club de France (FRA), Rotweiss Wettingen (SUI), TJ Plzen Litice (CZE)

Those final positions will be combined with points earned when the final positions from the FINAL8 and next Easter’s EuroHockey Club Trophy I in Lousada and Trophy II in Zagreb at Whitsun.

The venue and the draws for the ABN AMRO EHL FINAL8 will be confirmed in due course.