Higher-ranked Germany marched into the semifinals of the FIH Odisha Men's Hockey World Cup after scraping past England 4-3 via penalty shoot-out at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.
The match ended 2-2 in the regulation time. In the ensuing penalty shoot-out, Germany edged out England 4-3.
It was a nail biting affair with both the teams giving tough challenge to each other. England opened the account as early as the 11th minute of the match by Wallace Zachary. Germany tried their best, but could not find the equaliser in the first quarter which ended 1-0 in favour of the three Lions.
In the second quarter, Germany earned their first penalty corner in the 26th minute, but failed to capitalise. England came back strongly and earned three back-to-back penalty corners in the 31st, 32nd minutes respectively. Ansell Liam converted the last one to double their lead.
In the last quarter, Germany came back strongly to reduce the margin to 1-2 through a brilliant field goal by Grambusch Mats in the 57th minute. Tom Grambusch converted a penalty stroke in the next minute to find the equaliser.
The match was subsequently decided in the ensuing penalty shoot-out as it ended 2-2 after the end of the final quarter.
Netherlands thrash Korea
Netherlands thrashed Korea 5-1 in another quarterfinal match to advance into semifinals. The Oranjes turned out to be too tough for the Koreans who had upset Argentina in the crossover.
While Bijen Koen (26th and 30th) scored two goals, Blok Justen (35th minute), Van Heijningen Steijn (49th minute) and Beins Teun (57th minute) struck one goal each for the Netherlands.
Seo Inwoo (50th minute) scored the only goal for Korea.