SF1: HC Bloemendaal – Royal Racing Club de Bruxelles

Match report

Bloemendaal’s penalty corner strength put them through to the EHL Men’s FINAL4, keeping alive their hopes of a third successive title.

Tim Swaen, Roel Bovendeert and Jasper Brinkman all scored from set pieces to see off Racing Club de Bruxelles and advance to Monday’s decider.

Racing almost made a dream start when Cédric Charlier broke through and lifted the ball over Maurits Visser only for Teun Beins to cover back and bat the ball off the line.

After that early scare, Bloemendaal set about controlling much of the play but the persistent runs of Charlier were causing them problems when he went on a charge.

That was until the 19th minute when Tim Swaen ripped a drag-flick into the top of the net to put the sparrows 1-0 up. After a further exchange of corners, Bloemendaal doubled up in the second half, this time with a disguised move, pushing the ball into the path of Roel Bovendeert for a glorious tip-in goal.

Racing pushed on after that, trying to find a way through a defence excellently marshalled by Arthur van Doren.

It needed something special to finally get them on the board and it came when Tanguy Cosyns and Charlier combined to slip the ball into the path of Samuel Malherbe. His vertical lift got him out of Visser’s reach and his volley got a helping hand over the line from Alexis Cayphas with 10 minutes to go.

Bloemendaal, though, quickly pushed back to get control on the game and restored their two-goal gap via Jasper Brinkman’s corner push. Floris Wortleboer then added one more into an unguarded net in the last minute to make extra sure.