A quartet of Tom Boon goals propelled Royal Léopold into the KO8, seeing off Ireland Banbridge 4-2 after a huge penalty corner battle.
For Léo, it saw them get one over the side that eliminated them from the 2016 EHL while Bann were left frustrated after a big performance for a second successive year but no ultimate outcome.
Indeed, the Irish side had most of the play in Q1 before the Belgians took hold. They ran up a number of corners and Gaspard Baumgarten hit the bar before Boon opened the scoring with a slingshot drag-flick.
Banbridge, however, fired back before half-time when Philip Brown’s low corner shot hit the net, making it 1-1 at the big break.
Boon made the difference, though, in Q3 with another pair of corners to make it 3-1 but they got no easy ride from there. Brown ripped in his second of the day with 12 minutes to go, closing the gap.
Léo, however, finished strong and had the result confirmed when Boon flicked in from the left baseline. They will next face Lille in the KO8 while Banbridge meet Grasshopper Zurich in the Ranking Match.
