Hockey World Cup Highlights: Hockey WC Race to Quarterfinals live – In a goalfest on Friday, Australia and Belgium have sealed their direct spots in the quarterfinals. The two teams topped Pool A and Pool B respectively. From Pool A, Argentina and France will have another shot through Cross-Overs. Argentina and France played a thrilling 5-5 draw. In Pool B, Belgium thrashed Japan 7-1 while Germany thrashed SouthKorea 7-2. But Belgium sealed the top spot on better goal difference. Korea also progressed to Cross-Overs despite the thrashing. FIH Hockey World Cup 2023 LIVE Updates on InsideSport.IN.
Hockey WC Results:
- Pool A: Australia 9-2 SouthAfrica
- Pool A: France 5-5 Argentina
- Pool B: Belgium 7-1 Japan
- Pool B: Korea 2-7 Germany
Hockey World Cup Highlights: Belgium & Australia seal QF spots, Germany & Argentina in Cross-Overs, Watch Hockey WC Highlights
Here is how the Pool standings look after Day 6️⃣ of FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 Bhubaneswar-Rourkela.#HockeyIndia #IndiaKaGame #HWC2023 #HockeyWorldCup2023 #StarsBecomeLegends @CMO_Odisha @sports_odisha @Media_SAI @IndiaSports pic.twitter.com/Yaqj3ileN4
— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) January 19, 2023
Pool A Qualification:
- Australia have topped the Pool A with a 9-2 win over SouthAfrica. With that, Australia have sealed their place in the quarterfinals.
- Argentina held France to a 5-5 draw to finish 2nd with 5 points.
- Both France and Argentina have earned places in Cross-Overs.
- SouthAfrica have been knocked out. But they will play in the Classification matches.
| Pool A | ||||||||||
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Australia | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 20 | 5 | 15 | 7 | QF |
| 2 | Argentina | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 5 | Cross-overs |
| 3 | France | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 14 | −7 | 4 | Cross-overs |
| 4 | South Africa | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 12 | −9 | 0 | Classification |
Hockey World Cup LIVE: Belgium vs Japan coming up, France hold Argentina 5-5, Australia beat SouthAfrica 9-2 to seal quarterfinal spot, Follow Hockey WC LIVE Updates
Australia vs SouthAfrica Highlights: Blake Govers had a day out in Rourkela as Australia clinched a resounding 9-2 victory over South Africa. With that win, Australia confirmed the top spot in Pool A to secure direct qualification to quarter-finals.
The 26-year-old scored four goals, all of which came in a stunning first 20 minutes. He took his goals tally to 126 goals from 133 internationals. With Tim Howard playing his 100th international match, the Kookaburras feasted on space and time. In the first half, Tom Craig, Jake Harvie, Daniel Beale, Jeremy Hayward and Tim Brand all joined Govers on the score sheet.
France vs Argentina Highlights: France and Argentina produced a match for the ages. France once again proved to be a bogey team for Argentina as the former Olympic champions played out a thrilling 5-5 draw. Four goals in the last 12 minutes including two last-minute penalty strokes settled the match. But despite the draw, both teams qualified for the Crossovers.
Momentum swung multiple times in the 3rd quarter as Argentina scored early to take the lead through Nicolas della Torre. France snatched the lead back through a Victor Charlet brace. Della Torre scored once again from a penalty corner to bring Argentina back level. Both teams traded a goal each in the 4th quarter and the game looked like it was heading for a draw.
But France won a penalty stroke with just 53 seconds left in the game. Charlet dispatched it for his fourth goal of the game. Argentina unwilling to give up earned a string of penalty corners in the final seconds. They scored with 6 seconds left on the clock to lock up the second spot in the group France finished third.
Pool B Standings:
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Belgium | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 3 | 11 | 7 | Quarter-finals |
| 2 | Germany | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 3 | 9 | 7 | Cross-overs |
| 3 | South Korea | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 13 | -10 | 3 | Cross-overs |
| 4 | Japan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 12 | -10 | 0 | Classification |
Pool B Final Standings:
- Belgium finished on top of Pool B to seal a quarterfinal spot.
- Germany finished 2nd in Group B after a hammering +-2 win over Korea.
- Although both Belgium and Germany finished with 7 points each, Belgium took the top spot thanks to a better goal difference.
- Germany and South Korea advanced to the Cross-Overs.
- Japan exited from the Group stage with no wins to show for.
- Japan will now move to the Classification round.
Belgium vs Japan Highlights: Belgium needed a big win against Japan and they delivered. Belgium thrashed Japan 7-1 to seal the spot of Pool B and earned direct qualification to the quarterfinals. Tom Boon with a hat-trick gave them a 4-goal lead by the end of first half. With that, they increased their goal difference to +9. They further extended their lead over Germany with another +3 goal difference in the next 30 minutes.
Japan had a much better start to the second half. But Belgium had a much better finish to the game scoring thrice in the final 10 minutes. Tom Boon scored another 2 goals as Belgium won with a 6-goal margin. With that, they bumped their overall goal difference to +11.
Korea vs Germany Highlights:
Germany needed to win by 9 goals to overtake Belgium in the Pool B standings and gain direct entry into the quarterfinals. Germany did almost everything right but could not surpass Belgium’s goal difference. Germany won 7-2 to move to Cross-Overs.
Germany started the game brightly, scoring in the second minute of the game. But by the end of the first quarter, Korea had pulled a goal back to keep the scores level. Wellen gave Germany their lead back before their half-time. But with just a 1-goal lead halfway through the game, German hopes of topping the group were rapidly fading.
The second half started frantically as both teams traded end-to-end counter-attacks. Korea had the best chance in the 32nd minute with Junwoo Jeong finding shooting space in the German circle. But his venomous hit sailed inches over the goal. Wellen increased the German lead completing his hat-trick in 41st minute and Gonzalo Peillat added another for the Honamas in the 43rd minute from their 6th penalty corner of the day.
The 4th quarter saw Germany overrun Korea in attack, scoring thrice in the first 7 minutes. But Korea retreated into their defence as German attempts at overtaking Belgium fell narrowly short. Korea added a second goal in the final minute as they won a penalty corner while the Germans had subbed their keeper out for an outfield player.
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