Women’s EuroHockey Indoor Club Cup (Swarzędz, Poland)
Waterloo Ducks will meet HC ’s-Hertogenbosch in the final of the women’s EuroHockey Indoor Club Cup after both fought back to win through to Sunday’s decider.
For Waterloo, they undid East Grinstead 4-2 having trailed 2-1 while Den Bosch were 1-0 down until deep in the fourth quarter against Mannheimer HC before striking three times in the last three minutes.
Waterloo Ducks became the first ever Belgian club to reach the women’s EuroHockey Indoor Club Cup final as they won a battle with East Grinstead 4-2.
It was a victory defined by beautiful innovation from penalty corners either side of yet another Daphné Gose goal.
The first half saw the teams trade penalty corner goals with France de Mot and Biba Mills on target and it stayed that way until the big break when Matilda Woodhead picked off an outstanding stroke save.
The English club went in front in Q3 with a brilliant counter-attack, Annelyse Tevant making the final pass across the circle where Mills finished off her eighth goal of the tournament.
But Waterloo were making most of the play and they got level with a special corner trick, de Mot reversing a pass to Gose to fire in for 2-2. They went in front in the 33rd minute when Lia Hubin’s excellent run was followed by a quick de Mot pass into Gose who scored her 13th goal in four games.
And they confirmed their spot in the final when de Mot was on the end of another unique corner variation with two minutes left.
The second semi-final was extremely tight with very little to separate the sides for long periods. Mannheim took the lead with a breathtaking piece of work down the left boards from Clara Roth, intercepting, beating last defender and flicking off her right foot into the far corner.
Den Bosch kept ramping up the pressure in the second half with Teuntje de Wit and Babs Reijnen leading attack after attack while Anissa Korth’s defence was superb to keep their narrow lead in place.
That was until the 37th minute when Reijnen laid off to Josephine Bekkers and she found the angle to goal. Within seconds, Imme van der Hoek put her side in front for the first time and they managed the endgame perfectly, winning one more corner on the final hooter – van der Hoek rolled it down the middle of an unguarded net for 3-1.
For Den Bosch, it keeps alive their chances of winning this competition for the second time, the previous one coming in 2013.
In Pool C, Slavia Prague and MSC Sumchanka both won well on Saturday evening for results which mean Czechia and Ukraine retain their place in the top division for 2027. In the process, Spain and Poland will be relegated for next season.
For Slavia, they ran up their second win of the day with an impressive 9-1 win over hosts UKS Swarek Swarzędz with Lucia Duchková scoring twice in the first half and then Nikol Babická added a second half hat trick.
Sumchanka, meanwhile, came back from 2-0 down in the first quarter to beat Club de Campo 5-2 with Olha Honcharenko running up four goals.
Maria Lopez and Bea Perez had given the Spaniards a flying start but they trailed 3-2 at half-time with Veronika Movchan starting the comeback in the eighth minute.
