The finalists of the EuroHockey League were decided here in Amsterdam with two entertaining and closely fought matches involving four of the best club sides in Europe.
UHC Hamburg proved themselves the comeback kids in last year's final, although on that occasion that were not able to amass sufficient goals to change the result. Against RC Polo de Barcelona in this year's semi final they repeated the trick but with an entirely different outcome.
The match was only three minutes old when UHC suffered the indignity of an own goal, giving Barcelona a lead which they extended just before half time when Pau Quemada scored from a penalty corner.
The second half was more evenly balanced between the two sides but with less than ten minutes left, UHC struck twice, the first from a Patrick Breitenstein corner and the second by Jonas Furste in open play. Two five minute periods of extra time failed to resolve the issue and so we were into the one-on-one shoot-out which is unique to this league.
Hamburg had progressed to the last four courtesy of a third round shoot-out against Bloemendaal, and the extra experienced showed. Hamburg scored at their first attempt, Moritz Furste the scorer. This was followed by five more attempts, two for UHC and three for Barcelona, all of which were either saved or ran out of time.
So UHC Hamburg go through to the finals tomorrow, where they will meet the winner of today's all-Dutch semi-final between the host club, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam. As might be expected, Taeke Taekema had his name on the sheet in this match with two well struck penalty corner goals, the first in the opening few minutes to give Amsterdam an early lead. But Rotterdam had more than their fair share of success from corners, with Simon Child and Jeroen Hertzberger scoring one apiece.
Right up to the dying seconds the match was keenly fought, but with two minutes left to play, and with the scores at 3-3, Rotterdam requested a video appeal for a foul in Amsterdam's 'D'. The appeal resulted in a hotly disputed penalty stroke, which Hertberger put away to finish the match 4-3 in Rotterdam's favour.
The final of the revised format women's Club Champions Cup will also be played here tomorrow. This will involve the women of UHC Hamburg and Dutch side s'Hertogenbosch. The Dutch side had a remarkable record in the old format competition which we are confident they will carry on into this competition.
