The ABN AMRO EHL FINALS carnival begins on Wednesday, April 16 in HC ’s-Hertogenbosch with four women’s FINAL12 knock-out battles.
This year, EHL Women has expanded from eight teams to 12 with an extra team from Spain and Belgium added to the qualifiers list along with a team from Ukraine and Czechia.
They will all compete in this newly introduced first phase of the competition, hoping to make it through to the FINAL8 where host club Den Bosch, Düsseldorfer HC, Gantoise and Real Club de Polo await.
Here’s what you need to know about the match-ups to look forward to on the opening day!
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Match 01: Slavia Prague (Czechia) v Surbiton (England) – 12.30 CET
Czechia’s history makers, the club was the first club from the country to play in EHL Men in 2022 and they are now the first women’s club to achieve the same feat.
It will be the club’s first time playing in the top division since the old EuroHockey Club Cup in 2002 and a first return to Den Bosch since 1999 when they ended in seventh place.
But they have been on a steady incline in recent years, winning the Challenge I in both 2022 and 2023 before earning a sixth place finish in the Trophy a year ago in Hamburg.
Surbiton – this week’s opponents in the FINAL12 (Wednesday, 12.30 CET) – also played in that event and it showed Slavia they are narrowing the gap.
Surbiton are looking to negotiate their way to the FINAL4 for the first time having picked up fifth and seventh place rankings in their most recent appearances in EHL Women.
They do so with something of a new squad this season with stars like Hannah Martin, Amy Costello, Sabbie Heesh and Leah Wilkinson moving on with New Zealand and Ellie Mackenzie coming in.
The latter has been a rich source of goals this season along with the resurgent Darcy Bourne after some tough times with injury – she has 13 goals to her name.
They will be key to their chances along with Olympic gold medalist Giselle Ansley, Sophie Hamilton, Izzy Petter and Holly Payne.
Match 02: Club de Campo de Madrid (Spain) v Braxgata (Belgium) – 14.45 CET
Two-time EHL Women’s finalists, Club de Campo are the one ever-present side since this format came into being in 2021 and they are hoping to keep up their proud record against newcomers Braxgata.
The Spanish runners-up from last term come into the event top of their domestic league but did miss out on the Copa de la Reina to surprise package Club Egara.
Once again, they have a stylish panel packed with top level experience – Maria Lopez, Bea Perez, Candela Mejias, Belen Iglesias, twins Laura and Sara Barrios and Alejandra Torres-Quevedo are all class performers.
They have also added another set of twins to their line-up from last season’s champions, Real Club de Polo, Florencia and Constanza Amundson. Guadalupe Fernandez Lacort joined from East Grinstead with whom she played in the EHL last year.
For Brax, they are making their EHL debut having finished as runners-up in the Belgian championship last season.
It is their fourth European campaign since 2018 having won gold twice at Club Challenge I level and then taking bronze in 2021 in Trophy I in Lille. As such, there is plenty of Euro club knowledge in a variety of formats.
The hugely experienced Louise Versavel returned to the club this season after a spell in the Hoofdklasse with Tilburg. She joins a number of Red Panthers like goalkeeper Elena Stogiu, Judith Vandermeiren, Lien Hillewaert, Camille Belis and Stephanie Vanden Borre (who played in the EHL with Gantoise) as well as ex-Railway Union twins Niamh and Michelle Carey.
The side will be coached for the last time this season by Darran Bisley before he links up with Australia’s women with Xavier Reckinger taking on the role for the rest of the season.
Match 03: Mannheimer HC (Germany) v MSC Sumchanka (Ukraine) – 17.00 CET
A fascinating rematch of sorts, MSC Sumchanka will hope they can produce some of the magic that saw them win the EuroHockey Indoor Club Cup in February in Siauliai, a first top tier success ever for a Ukrainian side.
En route, they beat their FINAL12 opponents Mannheimer HC. While this is a debut in the EHL, the side have huge knowledge of European competition with the squad playing together as a group for many years. For the likes of Kateryna Shokalenko and captain Yenheniia Moroz, they are over a decade on the road with the side.
Striker Karyna Leonova is one to watch along with the growing influence of Anastasiia Shyshyna and Kateryna Popova.
For Mannheim, they will be looking to back up their super run in 2024 when they reached the EHL Women’s GRAND FINAL, just missing out at the hands of AH&BC Amsterdam.
Since then, they backed up that success with a runners-up position in Germany and then won their national indoor championship.
Their panel is a strong one with Sonja Zimmerman adding a dynamic midfield presence; she rejoined the club last summer from Amsterdam.
She joins a strong panel with a strong Argentine influence with Lucina von der Heyde and Agustina Habif in the line-up. Her sister Florencia played last year before she found out she was pregnant with her first child which has since arrived and she has returned to the first team.
Stine Kurz is their other German international while Lucia Jimenez and Clara Badia-Bogner are Spanish national team players. Fiona Felber is the Austrian captain from the side which took silver at the Indoor World Cup in February.
They come into the EHL on a run of 14 successive league wins, dating back to September.
Match 04: Railway Union (Ireland) v SCHC (Netherlands)
Railway Union will play in their first Euro Hockey League event having won Ireland’s EY Champions Trophy last season with the very last touch of the campaign.
Róisín Upton scored a last minute penalty stroke to defeat Loreto in the final and win the title and land this place in the FINAL12.
She is among a number of internationals in the side along with Katie Mullan with whom she won a World Cup silver medal in 2018 in London. They are joined by newly elected Irish captain Sarah Hawkshaw and indoor internationals like sisters Orla and Sarah Patton, Lily Lloyd and goalkeeper Emma Maloney.
They also have named the vastly experienced Emma Lee (née Smyth). She is one month shy of her 40th birthday and played in the EuroHockey Club Champions Cup back in 2014 when they finished in seventh place in Den Bosch.
The Dubliners play SCHC who are back for a third successive EHL Women’s competition and looking to breakthrough into the final for the first time since the competition was introduced.
From their panel, Yibbi Jansen was 2024’s icon, winning the FIH Player of the Year following her gold medal winning performances in Paris while Xan de Waard was also up on the shortlist for that nomination. Renee van Laarhoven, Lisa Post and Pien Dicke also formed vital elements of their Olympic success.
Last year, they took bronze in the EHL with wins over Gantoise and Junior FC but a FINAL4 defeat to AH&BC Amsterdam followed a 2023 exit at the hands of HC ’s-Hertogenbosch in the FINAL8 a year earlier.
They have previously been queens of Europe, winning the fore-runner to this event – the EuroHockey Club Champions Cup in 2015. The links between this generation and that one, though, are now limited to Femke Richardson who – as an 18-year-old – was part of the SCHC squad that year.
It will be their second European campaign of the season after their young stars travelled to Šiauliai in Lithuania for the EuroHockey Indoor Club Cup where they ended in silver medal position.