ROURKELA: Defending champions Belgium and Australia recorded massive pool stage victories over their respective opponents to qualify for the FIH Men’s World Cup quarter-finals here at the Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium on Friday.

A quartet of goals from Blake Govers led Australia’s 9-2 mauling of South Africa in pool ‘A’, paving their way for direct qualification for the quarter-finals as they finished top of the pool.

Australia will either face Malaysia or Spain in the quarter-finals as the two sides face off in a crossover match.

Govers struck in the fourth, 15th, 19th and 20th minutes as the rampaging Australians led 7-1 at halftime. His first and fourth strikes were field goals while the second one was from a penalty corner and the third from the penalty spot. Tom Craig (10th), Jake Harvie (22nd), Daniel Beale (28th), Jeremy Hayward (32nd) and Tim Brand (47th) were the other Australian goal-getters.Ntuli Nqobile (8th) and Kok Tevin (58th) were the scorers -- both field goals -- for South Africa.

Meanwhile in pool ‘B’ action, holders Belgium thrashed Japan 7-1 in the third match of the day and sealed their top spot in the pool. Belgium needed a big win against Japan to try and seal their spot at the top of the pool and earn direct qualification to the quarter-finals.

In another pool ‘A’ match played at the same venue, Argentina and France scored a goal each in the final minute to play out a 5-5 draw.

Argentina finished second in the pool with five points from three matches -- one win and two draws -- while France ended at third with four points (one win, one draw and one loss).

The first-half hat-trick by Tom Boon gave them a four-goal lead by the end of the first half, and increased their goal difference to +9, with another 30 minutes to further extend their lead over Germany, who had a +3 goal difference with one game to go in the final match of the day against Korea.

Japan scored their lone goal in the fourth quarter. But Belgium had a much better finish to the game scoring thrice in the final 10 minutes, including two more goals for Boon, to win with a six-goal margin and bump their overall goal difference to +11.

The final game of the day was also the final match of the pool stage, with Germany needing a win by nine goals against South Korea to overtake Belgium in the pool ‘B’ standings and gain direct entry into the quarter-finals.

Germany won the match 7-2 with Niklas Wellen scoring a hat-trick.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2023