Australia, Belgium enter World Cup last-four in hockey

BHUBANESWAR: Defending champion Belgium and three-time winner Australia booked semifinal spots in the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup after getting the better of Spain and New Zealand in their respective quarterfinal matches here on Tuesday.

While Australia toiled hard for a 4-3 win over Spain in the first quarterfinal, Belgium did not face much problem in its 2-0 win over India’s conqueror New Zealand in the second last-eight match of the day at the Kalinga Stadium.

With the win over Spain, Australia made its 12th straight semifinals in the World Cup.

Winners of the 1986, 2010 and 2014 editions, Australia has made it to the semifinals of a World Cup on 11 occasions since the 1978 edition in Buenos Aires.

It had lost to the Dutch in the semifinals in a penalty shootout in the last edition here in 2018.

Belgium suffered a jolt just before its quarterfinal match, as its star penalty corner expert Alexander Hendrickx was ruled out of the remainder of the tournament after he twisted his knee in its final Pool B match against Japan on January 20.

Belgium now awaits the winner of Wednesday’s quarterfinal between England and Germany in the semifinals, while title contender Australia will face the winner of the other last-eight match between the Netherlands and South Korea.

It was a close affair in the Australia vs Spain quarterfinal match but Jeremy Hayward’s two penalty corner strikes in the third quarter made the difference.

Spain captain Marc Miralles committed a costly mistake as he failed to score from a penalty stroke four minutes from the final hooter, when his team was training 3-4. Had he scored, the match would have gone to the shootout.

Hayward struck in the 33rd and 37th minutes while Flynn Ogilvie (30th) and captain Aran Zalewski (32nd) scored field goals for Australia.

Xavier Gispert (20th), Marc Recasens (24th) and Miralles (41st) were the goal scorers for Spain who will head home now.