MONCHENGLADBACH (Germany), Sept 16: Germany booked a final clash against Australia in the men's field hockey World Cup after a dramatic penalty shoot-out against Spain on Friday.

Germany defeated Spain three penalty strokes to one in front of 10,000 noisy fans after the scores were locked at 2-2 at the end of 15 minutes of golden goal extra time.

Earlier Friday Australia came from behind to beat South Korea 4-2 to book its final against Germany on Sunday.

Bjoern Emmerling deflected in Germany's first goal from a free hit outside the circle 20 minutes into the second half.

Santiago Freixa converted Spain's fourth penalty corner flicking low through the pads of Germany's goalkeeper Ulrich Bubolz into the centre of goal nine minutes before the break.

Moritz Fuerste got a touch into goal from a centre from the left by Matthias Witthaus for Germany's go-ahead goal nine minutes after the break and Alex Fabregas answered for Spain in the same minute with a slap into the top of the net.

After the 15 minutes of golden goal extra time failed to produce a winner, the match was decided on penalty strokes.

Ulrich Bubolz saved strokes by Spain's Santiago Freixa and Pau Quemada and Pol Amat's stroke did not reach the line.

Germany's Christopher Zeller, Timo Wess and Philipp Zeller flicked into the left side of the net.

Eduard Tubau made Spain's only successful stroke inside the left post while Moritz Fuerste for Germany made a poor attempt, easily saved by Quico Cortes, Spain's goalkeeper, for Germany's only miss.

Spain used Germany's fans to get into the game.

“We took the energy in the stadium and used it to our advantage and I think it was a great crowd tonight and a fair crowd,” said Maurits Hendriks, Spain's coach.

“The seven penalty corners we received were well defended by Germany and some of my calls may have been unfortunate because I should have played more direct shots on goal than the variations I called from the bench,” Hendriks said.

Bernhard Peters, Germany's coach was happy with the win.

“I am very happy tonight that my young team has made it into the final of the World Cup,” Peters said.

“You could see the Spanish team was very strong penetrating the circle and we conceded too many penalty corners but my top man in the defence was Ulrich Bubolz and he saved many shots on goal from Spain,” Peters said.

Meanwhile, Argentina defeated India 3-2 on Saturday to go through to the playoff for ninth place against Japan.

India will play South Africa on Sunday to avoid the wooden spoon.

The Indians had experienced strikers Gagan Ajit Singh and Tejbir Singh sitting in the stands and had captain Dilip Tirkey and Kanwalpreet Singh out of the starting line-up.

In the backfield they had Bharat Chettri in goal, Raghunath Vakkaliga at left back and Viren Rasquinha right back and Vikram Pillay as centre pivot.

Dilip Tirkey replaced Raghunath Vakkaliga after 10 minutes and moved to right back with Viren Rasquinha taking left back.

Ajun Halappa scored India's first goal, getting a touch on a cross from Tushar Khandker to score after three minutes.

Argentina had three unsuccessful penalty corners in the first half and scored three times from penalty corners in the second half.

Matias Vila equalised for Argentina with a backstick shot high into goal from a rebound off Chettri's pads five minutes into the second half and Matias Paredes sent Argentina ahead 2-1 twelve minutes later, tapping in a rebound off Chettri which fell near the goal line from a penalty corner shot by Vila.

Raj Pal Singh scored off a pass into the circle by Swamy Vakkaliga to get back to 2-2 and Matias Vila put Argentina's seventh penalty corner low inside the right post for the winner eight minutes before the end.

Vasudevan Baskaran, India's coach complained again about mistakes made by his players.

“This is the sixth match of the tournament in which the players have not rectified their mistakes because the players are playing the same patterns and are making the same mistakes day after day,” Baskaran said.

“I was content with the way we played in the second half,” said Sergio Vigil, Argentina's coach.

“We were in a very bad mood yesterday in the team because we could not be in the top six but after the watching the semi-finals we decided that we would be ninth and we played to win today,” said German Orozco, Argentina's captain.

In the earlier match, Japan's speed overwhelmed South Africa 5-2 and they will play Argentina for ninth place on Sunday.

—AFP