UCD 1 Rot Weiss Koln 2
UCD were left frustrated as they fell 2-1 to Rot Weiss Koln in the quarter-final of the EuroHockey Club Champions Cup – the sport’s equivalent of the Champions' League – in Bilthoven, the Netherlands on Friday.
They were attempting to become the first Irish side to reach the final four and were left feeling aggrieved after Katie Mullan saw a 60th-minute equaliser ruled out in contentious fashion.
The students also could not make full use of eight penalty corners – the German champions had three – while Anna O’Flanagan hit the post and Emily Beatty had an effort taken off the line.
Rot Weiss made the Irish side pay for their profligacy with Hannah Gablac scoring in the 31st minute from her side’s second attack of note. Lea Stockel then converted a penalty corner move a minute into the second half.
Anna O’Flanagan got one back with 22 minutes to go but, despite UCD having the majority of the play, a second goal would not come.
UCD now go into Sunday’s fifth to eighth place playoffs where they meet English side Canterbury at 1pm on Sunday.
Speaking afterwards, coach Jonathan Harte said it was a hugely frustrating outcome to a fine performance: “I’m raging in the sense that, over the course of the game, we had more chances than them, more circle entries and corners.
“We generally go and press teams; it’s a bit different when you are playing one of the top teams in Germany but I felt we had to ask the questions and see what happened and we certainly asked them. It certainly was not easy for them.”
In the men’s Euro Hockey League, three Irish players are hoping to help their club win the biggest club competition in the world. Kyle Good and Shane O’Donoghue, playing with Belgian club Dragons, take on hosts Bloemendaal while Conor Harte, with Dutch club Kampong, faces a tussle with three-time champions UHC Hamburg.
Both games are being played on Saturday.
UCD: T Ellis, S Greene, L Ewart, N Evans, C Watkins, K Mullan, A O'Flanagan, E Beatty, S Robinson, G Pinder, D Duke
Subs: J Deacon, E Carey, M O’Donnell, E Duncan, S Twomey
Rot Weiss Koln: J Ciupka, L Stockel, L Vonhoegen, P Velmands, P Grambusch, J Peeters, F Hauke, J Volk, N Pahl, H Gablac, J Karwatzky
Subs: C Schroder, K Huls, R Grote, H Busch, L May, S Lobe
