MADRID, March 10: India face their toughest test in the first semifinal against the Netherlands at Olympic qualifying hockey tournament on Thursday as Pakistan meet Spain in the other final four encounter.

Statistics and defensive errors are stacked against India defeating the mighty Dutch. India scored 17 goals, 14 from 52 field goal shots, and conceded 13 goals, 6 from 28 penalty corners and 2 from penalty strokes on their way to second place in Pool B.

Those statistics reveal that India's defence makes too many mistakes and concede penalty corners and penalty strokes that give their opposition scoring chances from the set play.

The Netherlands scored 23 goals to head Pool A, 16 from 54 field goal attempts and 6 from 24 penalty corner attempts and conceded only 6 goals, 2 from 18 penalty corners.

On those statistics, India look to be going into the match conceding at least one goal through penalty corners to the Netherlands' Taeke Taekema, regarded as one of the best drag-flickers in the world.

The Netherlands had 54 field shots on goal with a 30percent success rate - the standard for international hockey - and if the Dutch have 10 field goal shots India will concede 3 more goals.

The Netherlands have proven to be a formidable, and settled, team under their new Australian coach Terry Walsh. Spanish and former Dutch coach, Maurits Hendriks, paid tribute to the work hat his predecessor Walsh has achieved with the Netherlands.

"The Netherlands has a new coach, and a very good one in my opinion, and a tranquillity and stability has returned to the team, and that is when Netherlands is at its most dangerous," Hendriks added. Spain can expect a tough match against Pakistan in the other semi-final.

Pakistan's key striker, Waseem Ahmad, is out for several weeks with a broken right hand which means coach Roelant Oltmans can trial Shakeel Abbasi in his place and ask more of his strikers Kashif Jawwad, Rehan Butt, and Shabbir Hussain.

Pakistan rely on the skill of their forwards to earn penalty corners to give Sohail Abbas a chance to score with his formidable drag flick. Tournament top scorer Sohail has converted eight times in the tournament from 20 chances including a perfect 4 from 4 against India.

Spain have conceded only 6 penalty corners in the tournament and goalkeepers Francisco Cortes and Bernardino Herrera have a perfect record of not conceding any goals from penalty corner conversion attempts in the tournament so far - the only goalkeepers to have achieved this remarkable statistic.

Juan Escarre, Spain's captain, scored twice in their 6-0 demolition of Poland in his first match back from a muscle strain, and they are counting on his ability to read play and lift the team.

If Pakistan and India both lose, it sets up a return match between them on Saturday. Pakistan won their Pool B encounter 5-3 last on Saturday.

In the classification matches for fifth to eighth place, most interest will be on the southern hemisphere clash between South Africa and New Zealand with the winner earning passage to Athens and a playoff for fifth and sixth place against the winner of the match between Great Britain and Belgium. The top seven teams from this tournament qualify for Athens. -AFP