Four-star Léo too strong for Lille

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.

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