Club de Campo Charged Luzerner
15 Feb 2008
Another physical match put Club de Campo de Villa de Madrid ahead of LuzernerSC 5-3 during day one of the EuroHockey Club Championship Cup at Bells Sport Centre Friday.
Spanish coach Xavi Arnau said: “For us it was important to win by more than one goal, we had more goals in our second game today which was good. The match against the Swiss had intensity; we were motivated and had a good, strong mentality to come out on top.”
Club de Campo wasn’t as confident in the first twenty minutes as the Swiss came out strong and surprised the favoured Spanish by scoring quickly. The Spanish answered with their own goal soon after but the Swiss struck again with a double dose. Luzerner’s Thomas Gahwiller netted the ball followed by a goal from Michael Casagrande to bring the Swiss ahead 3-1. Keeping the pressure on, Luzerner’s Raphael Stubi soon took a shot but placed it wide.
Spain needed to shape up and Fredric Soyez charged scoring a penalty corner to close in on Luzerner’s lead. Teammate Aguilar kept momentum going for the Spaniards and nutmegged Luzerner’s goalkeeper to equalise. On a role Aguilar followed up his skilful move with another shot to give Club de Campo a 4-3 lead.
With 55 seconds left on the clock, Luzerner took their keeper out to add another stick to the court. In the last few seconds of the game the Swiss gave a penalty which Club de Campo took after time. It was again Soyez that placed the ball in the back of the net to make an official 5-3 win.
Luzerner Team Manager Angel Gonzalo stated: “After a good first half we thought we could win the match. Within five minutes of the second half the Spanish changed it up and we couldn’t manage an equaliser. We took our keeper out and they acted very clever and left us no chance. Not all is lost we can still go forward tomorrow if we beat Menzieshill and hopefully go through to the final.”
Looking forward to tomorrow Arnau commented: “We never think too far ahead, we take one game at a time. The semi-finals are important, we might play strong sides such as Germany or Poland but if you want to win the cup you have to play tough sides.”