Men’s EuroHockey Indoor Club Challenge II (Vantaa, Finland)
Oslo SK will meet Valhalla LHK in Sunday’s final as the former completed the group stages unbeaten to join the former side after a dramatic end to the three-team group.
Earlier, Vantaa turned the tables on Valhalla as they transformed Friday’s 6-1 defeat to the Swedish side into a 6-2 victory on day two, giving them the Finnish team their first win of the weekend.
Attlia Farkas led the way with his fourth and fifth goals of the weekend while there were further strikes from Lauri Ondreka and Sami Reijonen before late efforts from Massimo Ruohonen and Aaro Niskanen put them out of sight.
Valhalla did, however, confirm their place in Sunday’s final when they held on for a 3-3 draw against Oslo SK, a result which confirmed a top two spot in the three-team pool.
Knowing a draw would be enough, Anders Magnusson had them in a perfect position, 2-0 up at half-time. Talha Asif Sheikh halved the deficit but Vilmer Karlsson did give his side extra breathing room with eight minutes to go at 3-1.
But they were left to live on their nerves as Sammiullah Khan and Mohammed Ashraf scored in the closing stages to make it level and a nervous ending.
While they missed out on that win, Oslo did snag victory in their next with a 3-1 success against Vantaa, moving them up to top of the group into the bargain.
Sheikh and Sammiullah Khan both scored in the second quarter for a 2-0 lead; Vantaa’s Farkas replied in Q3 but Sheikh won the day in the 35th minute, setting up the final showdown on Sunday with Valhalla.
