A brilliant second half performance from Bloemendaal saw them advance to the FINAL8 as they won a feisty 3-0 battle against Mannheimer HC.

Two goals from Dennis Warmerdam followed a pin-point Nathan Ephraums shot to the top corner. The scoreline, though, was far more one-sided than the flow of the game in which both sides had numerous chances with Maurits Visser making a string of saves with the game in the balance.

Linus Müller’s superb line-stop from a Marc Miralles was the pick of the first half action in which Ephraums also went close.

The Australian international did put them 1-0 up 90 seconds into the second half with a sublime finish, lifting a loose ball in the circle into the top corner with minimal back-lift.

Warmerdam then slid onto a beautiful penalty corner move to put extra daylight between the teams in Q3.

Mannheim piled forward after that and had a number of corner chances brilliantly charged down. Numerous skirmishes in the circle were expertly dealt with with Teun Beins to the fore.

It left the German champions frustrated in the closing stages and they were caught once more on the counter-attack with Warmerdam scoring in the last minute into an empty goal.

Four-star Royal Léopold proved too strong for Lille as the Belgian club pulled clear of the French side with two more goals from Tom Boon and one each from Nelson Onana and Arthur Verdussen.

The result sees them advance to next Easter’s FINAL8 while Lille end with ninth place ranking points on behalf of France.

Boon continued his red-hot run with a powerful drag-flick into the top corner in the second quarter after a low-key start; Boon also hit the crossbar in that phase and Tanguy Zimmer volleyed the rebound over, meaning it was 1-0 at half-time.

John Verdussen did extend the lead in the second half with a sharp rebound after two excellent saves from Jose-Inaki Lafuente.

Lille made life difficult, offering little space in the circle until the closing six minutes. There, Nelson Onana with a smart back post goal and Boon finished off the win in the dying seconds with another corner goal.

For the striker, it was his sixth goal in two games in London and makes it 31 for him in total – putting him in third place on the all-time EHL goalscorer list. Only Jeroen Hertzberger (40) and Marco Miltkau (35).

Earlier, Johnny McKee’s first half double propelled Banbridge to a 3-0 win over Grasshopper Club Zurich and give the 13th place ranking points to Ireland from this weekend’s EHL KO16 Men’s event in Surbiton.His first was a glorious individual goal, racing from right to left and eventually firing home on his backhand to make it 1-0.The second saw him clean up the pieces after a ball rebounded his way. Philip Brown got the third just 22 minutes into the game from a penalty corner, his third in two games.That was how it remained as Grasshopper put up a staunch performance from there on but could not find a way back into the game.Bann’s win sees them end in 13th place with Grasshopper ending their debut season in 17th.

EuroHockey Freestyle makes its epic return this weekend following a spectacular debut at the EHL FINAL8 last Easter in the Wagener Stadium.

This weekend, the second Freestyle showdown will take place at the Euro Hockey League KO16 Men at Surbiton Hockey club where everyone can show off their best moves with a stick and a ball, no matter your age!

There will be two qualification rounds on Pitch 3; the first is on Friday, October 4th at 6.30pm with the second session on Saturday evening at 5pm.

The winner and runner up of each session will be invited for Sunday to show their skills on the main Pitch and a chance to win an Osaka customised stick.

Two first quarter penalty corner goals saw Bloemendaal do just about enough to get the best of Real Club de Polo and advance to Friday’s KO8, 2-1 in the final reckoning.

Bloemendaal hit the front in just the fourth minute when Floris Wortelboer eventually forced the ball after a series of four Luis Calzado saves from a penalty corner.

Teun Beins then launched a piledriver of a stroke through the Polo defences as the Dutch giants looked to take control of this contest.

But Polo started to find a lot more momentum in the second half and they got back in the mix when Benedikt Schwarthaupt ripped in a low flick which made it all the way into the backboard.

They earned a number of corners to put Bloemendaal under severe pressure right up to the last few seconds when Polo spurned a golden chance.

Gonzalo Peillat scored twice in each half to power Mannheimer HC to an 8-0 win over AHTC Wien, seeing them through the KO8 in Surbiton.

He starts the ball rolling with two drag-flicks in the first quarter and then Andreas Rafi scored from close range for a third with barely 13 minutes gone.

Raphael Hartkopf stretched the lead out further with a rocket of a backhand shot just before half-time.

Peillat completed his hat trick with a rare goal from play, a lovely shot from the top of the circle after a sweet interchange and a nice dodge move in the circle.

His fourth goal came from a corner before the end of Q3; Matteo Poljaric guided in the seventh from a Ben Hasbach pass before the latter completed the scoring from a corner move.

A quartet of Tom Boon goals propelled Royal Léopold into the KO8, seeing off Ireland Banbridge 4-2 after a huge penalty corner battle.

For Léo, it saw them get one over the side that eliminated them from the 2016 EHL while Bann were left frustrated after a big performance for a second successive year but no ultimate outcome.

Indeed, the Irish side had most of the play in Q1 before the Belgians took hold. They ran up a number of corners and Gaspard Baumgarten hit the bar before Boon opened the scoring with a slingshot drag-flick.

Banbridge, however, fired back before half-time when Philip Brown’s low corner shot hit the net, making it 1-1 at the big break.

Boon made the difference, though, in Q3 with another pair of corners to make it 3-1 but they got no easy ride from there. Brown ripped in his second of the day with 12 minutes to go, closing the gap.

Léo, however, finished strong and had the result confirmed when Boon flicked in from the left baseline. They will next face Lille in the KO8 while Banbridge meet Grasshopper Zurich in the Ranking Match.