The breathtakingly beautiful city of Barcelona is ready for the latest instalment of the Euro Hockey League, the world’s most innovative and exciting club hockey competition.
As usual, a global audience of millions will be able to follow all of the tournament action thank to free live streaming of every match courtesy of the EHL website.
The seventh season of the EHL gets underway on Friday morning, with the Pau Negre Stadium in Parc del Migdia playing host to three days of intense action between 12 of Europe’s finest club teams. It is the fifth time that Spain has played host to a Euro Hockey League competition weekend.
Round 1.1 of this season’s EHL will witness the teams in Pools D, E, G and F fighting it out in a bid to earn their place at Easter’s magnificent KO16 event, which will take place in The Netherlands. Eight KO16 places are up for grabs in Barcelona, with the two highest-ranked teams in each Pool ensuring qualification for the next phase. The teams that finish bottom in each Pool will be eliminated from the competition.
Day 1 begins at 09.30 (Central European Time) with a match between two EHL newcomers, with Surbiton HC of England facing Austrian champions SV Arminen in Pool E. The Surbiton team contains Great Britain strike duo Matt Daly and James Tindall, while Arminen are sure to be extremely well organised thanks to the presence of former India coach Cedric D’Sousa on the side-lines.
At 1200 in Pool D, English champions Beeston HC face another team new to the EHL, with Welsh outfit Cardiff & Met being their opponents before Dutch giants Oranje Zwart do battle with Scotland’s Glynhill Kelburne at 1430 in Pool G. The OZ line up is packed full of international quality, including ace penalty corner expert Mink van der Weerden, Belgium star Thomas Briels and Pakistan trio Rashid Mehmood, Fareed Ahmed and the brilliant Muhammad Rizwan Sr. The final match of the day will take place in Pool F at 1700, with Russian champions Dinamo Kazan and Spain’s Club de Campo of Madrid going head to head.
The action will continue on Saturday with another four teams entering the fray – Tobias Hauke’s Harvestehuder THC (GER), Real Club de Polo de Barcelona (ESP), 2013 EHL silver medallists KHC Dragons (BEL) and Polish champions WKS Grunwald Poznan.
The complete match schedule for the weekend can be found on www.ehlhockey.tv, the official website of the Euro Hockey League. A further 12 sides will hope to claim the remaining eight KO16 berths when EHL Round 1.2 takes place at Lille MHC (FRA) in just over two weeks’ time.
As always, the EHL will be providing full coverage of the event, with live streaming and complete tournament information being available on www.ehlhockey.tv and through our Smartphone App. The EHL social media coverage will also be extensive, allowing fans to interact through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We hope you enjoy the coverage.
More information about this weekend’s tournament in Barcelona can be found on www.ehlhockey.tv, the official website of the Euro Hockey League.
Source material: Euro Hockey League
