Mannheim and Egara shoot their way into men’s ABN AMRO Cup final

Mannheimer HC and Club Egara will meet in the men’s ABN AMRO Cup on Monday following their respective wins in the semi-finals via shoot-outs after another day of high drama in Terrassa.

Egara were first to go through as they got their first victory over Rotterdam in the EHL having lost their previous two meetings back in 2008 and 2010. 

Marc Recasens gave his side the perfect start with a goal 45 seconds in when he fired in a penalty corner. Rotterdam got back level in the second half after a spate of penalty corners with Olivier Hortensius making it 1-1.

Egara, though retook the lead in the final quarter through Xavi Gispert only for Rotterdam to bounce back once more, Jeroen Hertzberger scoring his second of the weekend from the penalty spot, 2-2.

The shoot-out ebbed and flowed with Club Egara scoring their first two to nudge in front but some good goalkeeping from Derk Meijer helped level it at 2-2 with Hertzberger and Tjep Hoedemakers scoring.

But Marc Sanroma kept out Rotterdam’s last effort and Recasens scored to win the day and the final spot.

The second semi-final was even crazier with Mannheim snatching a 5-5 draw in normal time with two goals in the last two minutes and then produced a perfect set of five shoot-outs to win 5-3.

The first quarter belonged to Waterloo Ducks with Guillaume van Marcke scoring twice. Gonzalo Peillat cut the gap and then Raphael Hartkopf levelled at 2-2 

Victor Charlet, however, was able to restore the lead before half-time and he made it 4-2 with his seventh goal in two games just after the big break.

Peillat reduced the deficit to 4-3 going into the final quarter but William Ghislain’s goal in the 54th minute seemingly had the game won for the Ducks.

But when Gauthier Boccard was sent to the sin-bin, Mannheim took their chance. Paul Zmyslony made it lively with three minutes left and then Peillat completed his hat trick to make it 5-5.

In the shoot-out, Linus Müller, Hartkopf, Mario Schachner and Justus Wiegand all scored while Lukas Stumpf kept out Ghislain. It laid the base for Guido Barreiros to score a winning shoot-out once again.

Monday’s schedule sees Grange face Post SV at 09.30 CET for seventh place; Three Rock Rovers are up against Hampstead & Westminster for fifth at 11.45 CET.

In the top four, Waterloo meet Rotterdam at 14.00, setting the scene for the final between hosts Club Egara and shoot-out kings Mannheimer HC at 16.15.

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