BHUBANESWAR: Gonzalo Peillat scored a second-half hat-trick and Niklas Wellen scored a last-minute goal as former champions Germany bounced back from two goals down Friday to stun Australia 4-3 and reach the field hockey World Cup final against defending champions Belgium, who beat the Netherlands 3-2 in a penalty shootout.

World number one Australia were leading 3-2 with less than three minutes left to play in a thrilling last-four encounter in at the Kalinga Stadium, and looked poised to repeat their Olympic semi-final victory over the Germans in Tokyo.

But Germany equalised with just one minute 42 seconds left on the clock as Argentine-born Peillat completed his penalty-corner hat-trick and then snatched a thoroughly deserved victory through player-of-the-match Wellen just when it looked as if the final spot would be decided in a shoot-out.

With drag flicker Jeremy Hayward (11th minute) and Nathan Ephraums (26th) scoring a goal in each of the first two quarters, Australia looked on course to win the first sem-ifinal with a 2-0 lead at half-time.

But Peillat, who switched allegiance to Germany just before the Tokyo Olympics and did not play international hockey for three years, struck with his drag-flick in the 42nd to reduce the margin and then levelled the scores in the 51st.

Blake Govers then produced a brilliant high drag flick in the 57th minute to give Australia the late lead — his 127th goal for his country — but it only forced the Germans to take off their goalkeeper in a desperate and successful late comeback surge.

Peillat pulled Germany level again in the 58th and then Wellen fired the ball home with less than 20 seconds left in the match to seal a memorable victory for Germany.

Two-time champions Germany will on Sunday face Belgium, who beat the Netherlands in a repeat of the 2018 World Cup final.

The match between the tournament’s oldest side, Belgium, and a young Dutch team was contested equally, but the more experienced defending champions ran away winners in the shootout.

Penalty corner expert Jip Janssen gave the Dutch the lead in the 12th minute but Belgium struck back three minutes before half-time with their star player Tom Boon scoring from a penalty corner.

The Dutch once again took the lead in the 36th with Janssen completing his brace from a penalty corner but Belgium equalised with de Kerpel firing a field goal.

In the shootout, goalkeeper Vincent Vanasch saved the last penalty shot to leave the Belgians frontrunners for back-to-back titles on Sunday at the same venue as their 2018 victory.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2023