Lousada – Men’s EuroHockey Club Trophy II 2025
Promotion is on the mind for the top two finishers at the men’s EuroHockey Club Trophy II in Lousada, an event which also brings with it precious EHL Ranking Table points.
Pool A has a heavy local influence with home club AD Lousada lining out against Grupo Desportivo do Viso from Porto. They are in a three-team group with Denmark’s Slagelse.
Pool B, meanwhile, features some European stalwarts with Poland’s WKS Grunwald Poznan, Switzerland’s Rotweiss Wettingen and Italy’s HC Bra who have all played in the EHL along with Croatia’s HK Zelina.
The format sees the group stages run from Friday to Sunday with top spot in each group taking a place in Monday’s final to go with promotion to Trophy I. Second spot from each group plays for bronze while third battles for fifth spot.
** Click here to follow the results over the weekend
Pool A
AD Lousada (POR)
Crowned the Portugal champions (pictured above) once again in May, they will be hoping to put home advantage to good use this weekend. They topped their regular season with seven wins out of eight and duly took the laurels from their double-header final against Casa Pia 7-5 on aggregate.
Vasco Ribeiro was their go to striker, scoring 18 times in 11 games, while he was ably supported by Goncalo Marques (15 goals) and Jorge Sá (12). They will be looking to swing back up to the second tier – Trophy I – having finished in seventh place a year ago. Lousada, however, won this Trophy II competition in 2023.
Grupo Desportivo do Viso (POR)
GD do Viso will be looking to cause something of an upset in the group stage against AD Lousada after they finished as runners-up in the regular season and were knocked out of the playoff semi-finals by Casa Pia.
But they can look to a 2-0 league win over their rivals as inspiration while João Basilio is a key source of goals for the team; he is one of two recent internationals along with Diogo Rocha.
It is a new adventure for each player in their extended panel with only Hugo Fereira having played for Clube de Futebol Uniao de Lamas back in 2015.
Viso’s last European men’s outdoor trip was back in 2000 when they played in Cup Winners Challenge in Bratislava, finishing in fourth place.
Slagelse (DEN)
Slagelse Hockeyklub holds the record for the most Danish outdoor field hockey championships, with 33 titles. Their recent success includes winning the championship 2021, 2022, and 2024.
The team already secured their spot in the 2026 Eurohockey competition with 2 games remaining of the Danish league. SHK enters the Trophy II with a young but ambitious and talented squad. With a mix of tactical discipline and high individual skill they hope to secure their spot in Trophy II.
Head coach Niels Henrik Sørensen says: “This year, we’re fielding a relatively young team, mainly consisting of players who have come up through our youth teams. That makes it especially exciting to see how far we’ve come when we test ourselves on the international stage.
“We’re well prepared and have played several good tournament and cup matches this spring. As always, we’ll need to adapt to a higher tempo when playing internationally – and this year, that starts right from the first two matches, which will be decisive, so we need to be ready from the outset.
“Our ambition is clear – we naturally dream of competing for the top spots, but at the same time, we remain realistic. In any case, we’re going to give it our absolute best.”
Pool B
HC Bra (ITA)
HC Bra are looking to go one better than a year ago when they finished in second place in Trophy II, just missing out on the title in a firecracker final in a shoot-out against Nizip Zeugma in Zagreb.
Since then, the club have gone on to win the Italian Super Coppa just before Christmas with a number of their star men honoured, among them goalkeeper Francesco Padovani, top scorer Andrii Koshelenko and a famous name getting MVP: Bob De Voogd.
The ex-Dutch international – a former EHL winner with Oranje-Zwart – is an inspirational figure around their club this season. Priyesh Bhana is another with EHL know-how having played with the club at the top level in their 2014 appearance in Barcelona.
There is a healthy contingent back for another season in Europe following a perfect record to date in Serie A1 domestically.
HC Rotweiss Wettingen (SUI)
The Swiss runners-up from 2024 are currently in second place in their regular league system behind Grasshoppers Zurich with one round to go, ensuring they will be involved in the playoff stage of the championship.
Mika Conrad – a veteran over five Euro club outdoor events despite being just 23 – is their top scorer with 14 goals outdoors in Switzerland with Jonas Winkler next with six. Robin Aebi (25) is another in a similar vein and it looking forward to his seventh tournament of this kind.
Michel Morard captains the team and – along with Conrad – is part of the latest Swiss international panel.
HK Zelina (CRO)
The Seniors of the Zelina Hockey Club have won the Croatian field hockey championship title five times so far and have indoor champions five times. The team, led by captain Antonio Žilić, is mostly made up of young domestic players, with two top foreign signings also playing for Zelina.
Bohdan Kovalenko, formerly of Post SV Wien and member of the Ukrainian national team, and Aleksandr Lykov, former member of the Russian national team and European club champion in indoor hockey in 2008 have bolstered their ranks.
Ivan Šoić and Mario Ilinović played for the Croatian men’s national team at the World Indoor Hockey Championship in Poreč at the beginning of this year (winning 9th place) while six players from the senior team also participated in the European U21 Championship (Group A) in Switzerland, where they won an excellent fourth.
HK Zelina continues to develop top players and remains firmly anchored at the very top of Croatian hockey.
WKS Grunwald Poznan (POL)
The WKS Grunwald Poznań team is a 27-time Polish champion and the leader of the Hockey Superliga table following the regular season with the playoffs to come later this month.
It is a side with many well-known faces from around the hockey world. Olympian Artur Mikuła is still going at 47 years old, still in good shape and has the heart for the game he loves.
Team captain and Polish international Mikołaj Głowacki is the driving force of the team; Damian Jarzembowski was the top scorer last season while Michał Lange is another of their internationals.
They are looking to fulfil their motto: #Wjednościsiła!, meaning “in unity there is strength”.
The tournament will also be the last for Paweł Bratkowski, player and assistant coach. From the moment he joined the military team, the “golden era” of Grunwald” Poznań began. A long-time representative of Poland and long-time captain of WKS Grunwald Poznań and the Polish national team, this will be his “last dance”.
