One of the longest continuous run in the men’s Euro Hockey League will come to an end next season as Rot-Weiss Köln missed out on a place in the German final four.
They have played in the past 12 editions of the competition, level with Poland’s WKS Grunwald Poznan and one behind Dinamo Kazan’s 13-year run.
Rot-Weiss were unable to turn the tide against Crefelder HTC, ending their three-year reign as national champions as they lost the first two of their best-of-three quarter-final.
In Saturday’s game two, Rot-Weiss made a dream start as Tom Grambusch’s penalty corner and a Michel Struthoff goal built a 2-0 lead in the first 12 minutes.
But Crefeld defended brilliantly with former Rot-Weiss keeper Joshua Onyekwue Nnjaji in inspired form – a hero in the first leg – producing similar heroics.
And star man Niklas Wellen forced their way back into the contest with a first goal in the 42nd minute and he equalised in the 55th minute from a corner.
That sent the game to a shoot-out where Crefeld prevailed with Wellen, Martin Ignacio Ferreiro and Linus Michler all scoring while Rot-Weiss failed to score.
It earned them a place at next weekend’s final four in Bonn where they will meet Mannheimer HC, the only side from the regular season’s top four to make it through.
MHC landed a huge 10-3 win over Harvestehuder THC to make it two wins from two from their series.
The other half saw Hamburger Polo club beat city rivals UHC 5-1 while Der Club an der Alster defeated Uhlenhorst Mülheim in game three.
Alster had won the first leg before losing the Saturday second leg in a shoot-out. It sent it to a decisive third game which Uhlenhorst were 1-0 up with seven minutes to go.
But Anton Boeckel and Fred Newbold struck within two minutes of each other to see Alster grab a 2-1 win.
