KUALA LUMPUR: Pakistan’s hopes of finishing among the top six at the FIH Junior Hockey World Cup ended with a 7-5 reverse at the hands of Australia in an entertaining fifth-to-eighth place classification match on Thursday.

Roelant Oltmans’ Pakistan were 7-2 down in at the start of the last quarter but fought till the end at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil and will now place Argentina in the seventh-place playoff.

Their effort drew praise from rival coach Jay Stacy. “Pakistan are a good and skillful team and it’s hard to contain them,” said Stacy after the match in which Australia raced away in the third quarter with four goals.

Pakistan fell behind early on with Nathan Czinner opening the scoring in the third minute with a well-finished field goal.

Abdul Qayyum levelled matters for Pakistan, but Cambell Geddes scored a drag-flick for Australia to lead 2-1 at half-time.

Brodee Foster scored two minutes into the second half, with Umar Mustafa replying soon after for Pakistan before Australia took control with three goals in four minutes.

Geddes competed his hat-trick with two more penalty-corner conversions in the 37th and 40th before Czinner added a field goal three minutes later.

Foster bagged a drag-flick a minute into the fourth quarter to all but seal the result even though Pakistan tried to hit back.

Ahtisham Aslam netted a field goal in the 48th with Qayyum getting his second in the 57th before Sufyan Khan netted from a penalty corner in the 60th but it wasn’t enough.

“We were not expected to make the quarter-finals,” said Oltmans after the match. “I’m proud of the boys and we have seen that we can give competition to those teams. People in Pakistan should be proud of this talented group.”

Pakistan will next face Argentina on Saturday after the deposed world champions lost 1-0 to the Netherlands in the other classification match.

France set up a title clash with Germany after they won 3-1 against Spain in the semi-finals. Germany beat India 4-1 in the other last-four clash with Ben Hasbach scoring a brace.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2023