Kempen take Belgium to the finals

Belgium's Kempen AMA have taken the seventh place in June's eight-team UEFA Regions' Cup finals after finishing top of the fiercely-contested Group 1 mini-tournament in Germany.

Belgians succeed
In the decisive match in Duisburg, Kempen won 2-1 against 2007 qualifiers Eastern Region AMA of Northern Ireland, who had been section leaders going into the last game. In a frenzied finale, Dieter Conderaerts and Tarik Traizi put Kempen 2-0 up before Stephen Park's 85th-minute finish prompted a grandstand finish. Had they struck again, they would have gone through to the finals, but it was not to be.

Maltese success
Eastern Region had kicked off the tournament with a 2-1 win against Malta's national amateur side, and went into the final day at the top of the section with four points, having drawn 0-0 with section hosts FV Niederrhein on Matchday 2. Conderaerts and Glenn Van Asten scored to give Kempen a 2-0 win against the hosts in their first game, but they then lost 1-0 to Malta.

'A really good tournament'
Niederrhein were to finish second in the section following a 5-2 win against Malta in their last fixture, with Stefan Galster and Kamil Bednarski both scoring twice. The hosts' coach Gerd Bode said: "Congratulations to Kempen for winning a really good tournament in which all four teams could have finished top. I wish them all the best for the finals."