BHUBANESWAR: Jeremy Hayward scored twice as Australia registered their first win at the Champions Trophy, beating Pakis­tan 3-0 on Tuesday to condemn Shahnaz Sheikh’s men to their third straight defeat in the elite eight-nation tournament.

Australia’s win hardly made any difference to the final standings as the Kookaburras, with four points from a victory and a draw, finished on third position in pool ‘A’ behind leaders England and second-placed Belgium.

England topped the pool by drawing 1-1 with Belgium in an earlier match at the Kalinga Stadium on Tuesday.

With all eight teams to be involved in the quarter-finals and the final pool positions determining the draw, Pakistan will face the Netherlands who topped Pool ‘B’ on goal difference ahead of Argentina.

The Dutch were beaten 3-2 by India in their final pool match on Tuesday with the victory sending the hosts third courtesy Olympic champions Germany’s 3-0 loss to Argentina earlier in the day.

Germany with clash with England for a spot in the semi-finals with India facing Belgium in another last-eight battle. Argentina will face Australia in the fourth quarter-final.

Pakistan had the first real scoring chance, Muhammad Arslan Qadir hit the outside of the goal following Muhammad Dilber’s great delivery.

After a barren first quarter, Australia finally broke the deadlock when Hayward scored from a penalty corner rebound in the 23rd minute.

Pakistan started to build attacks in the final quarter in search of the equaliser but could not find the back of the net.

Their hopes of a comeback were dashed when Hayward flicked home his second from a penalty corner with seven minutes remaining before Jacob Whetton sealed the match for his side 90 seconds from the final hooter.

“The boys did not play well today and missed a number of opportunities,” Shahnaz said. “But they are improving match by match and meeting any team in the quarter-finals will not make much of a difference as all eight teams are strong and anyone can win on any given day.”

England, seeking their first Trophy title and have been the pick of the teams with wins over five-time defending champions Australia and Pakistan, conceded an early goal to Belgium but dominated thereafter.

Amaury Keusters put Belgium ahead in the eighth minute, and goalkeeper Vincent Vanash fisted out some threats from England to help hold on to the lead.

But England’s pressure was unrelenting. Iain Lewers hit the crossbar from a penalty stroke but produced the equaliser in the 48th minute with a crisp reverse-flick from the top of the circle.

“I was fortunate to find myself in a position to score and make up for not converting the stroke,” Lewers said. “We’re pleased with our performance today but what matters is that we win our knockout games.”

Argentina handed Olympic champions Germany a second straight loss with their biggest ever win in the Trophy.

Skipper Matias Paredes, Joaquin Menini and Ignacio Ortiz scored for the Pan-American champions, who ended the preliminary league with two wins and one defeat in pool ‘B’.

Paredes said he wanted his team to maintain the momentum when the knock-out phase starts on Thursday. “This win was very satisfying because we kept them under pressure throughout the game and converted the chances that came our way,” he said. “We don’t want to lose this momentum.”

After two successive defeats, India finally tasted their first success with goals by SV Sunil, Manpreet Singh and Rupinderpal Singh giving them a much-needed boost ahead of the quarter-finals.

Published in Dawn December 10th , 2014