EHL Men’s BRONZE MATCH
Uhlenhorst Mülheim 2 (F Nyström 2) Royal Léopold 4 (M Muschs 3, D Cuvelier)
A Max Muschs hat-trick saw Royal Léopold soar to their first ever EHL Men’s top three finish, coming back from 2-0 down to beat Uhlenhorst Mülheim in the BRONZE MATCH at the Wagener Stadium.
Playing without star men Tom Boon and Max Plennevaux, they found themselves 2-0 down after 23 minutes to a pair of Frederik Nyström but Muschs struck twice before half-time to level the game. And then Dimitri Cuvelier and Muschs added another pair in the closing ten minutes to win the tie.
Early on, it was Mülheim who got out of the blocks the fastest with 19-year-old Nyström cleaning up the pieces after Malte Hellwig’s drag-flick was well saved by Romain Henet in the eighth minute.
And he snatched another from close range – despite his side being down to 10 players – from a lovely move, Benedikt Fürk clipping a cross from the right baseline, giving the youngster time to control and flick in.
Léo, though, found a response within a minute with Muschs taking over the shooting duties from corners in Boon’s absence and he dragged in their first.
Three minutes after, it was 2-2, Muschs this time taking on an old-fashioned hit from the top of the D and it deflected in off the first runner, the goal awarded after video review.
With Tom Degroote in red-hot form, they continued to pile forward in the third quarter but the winning goals did not arrive until much later. Like in the FINAL4, Mülheim suffered cards in the closing minutes and while Niklas Bosserhoff was on a yellow card suspension.
It came from another corner, this time a move which saw a weak shot saved by Lennart Küppers but only as far as Cuvelier who shot into the net on his backhand.
And the game was won when Muschs fired in another drag-flick in the 53rd minute.