Germany’s KHTC Rot-Weiss Köln have been crowned as winners of the BMW AutoLille EuroHockey Indoor Club Champions Cup thanks to a string of brilliant performances in Lille (FRA) at the weekend.
Rot-Weiss powered to wins over Partille SC (4-2), Atlétic Terrassa (9-2), Racing Club de Bruxelles (4-1) and host club Lille MHC (12-1) to earn a place in Sunday’s Final. There, the Euro Hockey League hopefuls faced Racing Club for the second time in the weekend, with Köln producing another fine display to win 7-2.
The team started the final in sparkling fashion, with Christoph Menke getting the lead just seconds into the contest before Jan-Marco Montag, Andrin Rickli, Daniel Montag and Germany superstar Christopher Zeller fired home to give Köln a 5-0 lead at half-time. Belgian international Tom Boon pulled one back for Racing, but Rot-Weiss soon extended their advantage through former UHC Hamburg prodigy Marco Miltkau to effectively seal the win before Racing’s Kempf and Köln’s Daniel Montag wrapped up the scoring.
The result ensured that Köln reclaimed the title from 2010, and will help them overcome the disappointment of being eliminated in the Quarter Final of the National Indoor Championships in Germany.
The Bronze medal game was between Lille MHC and Dinamo Yekaterinburg of Russia, with Dinamo taking a 4-3 victory.
Amsterdam H&BC’s Robert Tigges finished as the tournament top scorer, although his goals could not stop Amsterdam from finishing 7th and being relegated.
Final Ranking | |
1 | KTHC Rot-Weiss Köln (GER) EuroHockey Champions |
2 | Racing Club de Bruxelles (BEL) |
3 | Dinamo Yekaterinburg (RUS) |
4 | Lille MHC (FRA) |
5 | Atlétic Terrassa (ESP) |
6 | Partille SC (SWE) |
7 | Amsterdam H&BC (NED) Relegated to EuroHockey Indoor Club Champions Trophy 2014 |
8 | Luzerner SC (SUI) Relegated to EuroHockey Indoor Club Champions Trophy 2014 |
Awards
Top Scorer: Robert Tigges, Amsterdam H&BC
Best Goalkeeper: Niclas Franzen, Partille SC
Best Player: Marco Miltkau, KHTC Rot Weiss Köln
With 80 games in four venues over three days the EuroHockey Indoor Club Championships is without doubt the most intense weekend on the EHF calendar. More information about the EuroHockey Club tournaments can be found at www.eurohockey.org.
