FINAL8: Royal Leopold Club – Rot-Weiss Koln

Match report

Rot-Weiss Köln made it through to the FINAL4 as a pair of Tom Grambusch’s rockets helped them see off the challenge of Royal Léopold 3-2.
It puts them in the frame for a medal for a third successive season as they showed the precision needed to advance.
In a close-knit first half, Rot-Weiss started to up the ante and went in front courtesy of a Tom Grambusch drag-flick following a series of penalty corners.
It gave them the narrow lead going into the second half and they doubled the advantage in the second quarter. Romain Henet made an incredible save in the lead-up but Léo never fully cleared their lines and the ball came back to Michel Struthoff and he slammed in a brilliant shot.
The Belgian side responded three minutes later when Arthur Verdussen deflected in a powerful ball from the left – amazingly it was exactly 11 years ago to the day that he had netted against the same opposition in the same stadium.
But Grambusch put Rot-Weiss in the clear once more with six minutes left with a rocket corner that went in off the underside of the crossbar to make it 3-1.
Tom Boon did get one back with 21 seconds remaining but the German side had done enough to advance.