Royal Léopold became the first Belgian side to win the men’s EuroHockey Indoor Club Cup as they produced a stunning shoot-out win over Mannheimer HC in Wettingen.

In so doing, they became just the seventh non-German side to win the competition in its 35 year history while Philippe Simar starred as top scorer with 13 goals from five games. Tanguy Zimmer was named player of the tournament.

It was the club’s second European trip of the season having made it through the EHL KO16 at Easter and they will next face Gantoise outdoors in the EHL FINAL8 at Easter.

The indoor final was a cagey encounter in which Tom Degroote got the only goal of the first half when Igor Lockwood picked out a beautiful crossfield pass. It set him through on goal on the right board where he loaded up and shot home.

Degroote doubled the advantage in the second half from a corner switch move as Léo hung deep for long periods and then pounced when they could.

Mannheim got a lifeline late in the third quarter when Ben Hasbach’s shot from the top of the D scrambled over the line.

And they were level midway through the final quarter from a clever corner move when Léo were left with just three defenders minding the goal.

The Belgian side survived to the shoot-out where they took the initial advantage with Degroote again scoring. Romain Henet saved twice, then, allowing Viktor Lockwood the chance to spin home the winning shoot-out.

Earlier in the competition, they sailed through the group stages with wins over Voordaan, Rotweiss Wettingen and HAHK Mladost, scoring 27 times. They followed up with a narrow 5-4 win over Sanse Complutense in the semi-final.