WORLD champions Australia justified their top rank status in world hockey with a resounding 7-0 victory against a lifeless Pakistan side, ousting them from the semi-finals race at the Riverbank Arena here on Tuesday.
The massive defeat in their last Group ‘A’ match also condemned Pakistan to a fourth-place finish behind Spain, who drew 1-1 with Great Britain.
Results on the final day of group action meant that Britain joined Australia, Netherlands and Germany in Thursday’s semi-finals while Pakistan will play the 7th-8th place playoff.
Australia scored goals through Christopher Ciriello (2), Liam de Young, Mark Knowles, Jamie Dwyer, Russell Ford and Glenn Turner.
Australia started aggressively and were 2-0 up by the sixth minute. Their captain Young hit the board on the first penalty-corner off a rebound in the fifth minute. Knowles doubled the lead in the sixth minute, converting a penalty-stroke.
Australia made it 4-0 after Ciriello added back-to-back goals with a rolling penalty-corner push in the 29th minute and a field strike in the 34th minute.
After the resumption, Australia continued to keep Pakistan at bay as they forged ahead 5-0 with a field goal from Ford (42nd min) before the experienced Dwyer scored off a rebound in the 48th minute.
Turner completed Pakistan’s misery with a field attempt in the 70th minute.
Australia earned eight short-corners to score three goals and one penalty-stroke. Their 14 field attempts brought three goals.
The relentless attacks from the Aussies made the whole match one-sided, to say the least as the play for most of the duration of the match remained in Pakistan’s half.
Akhtar Rasool, the Pakistan head coach-cum-manager, admitted that Australia dominated and outclassed his side in every department.
“They cashed in on the opportunities with their fine game whereas our players failed to create chances. Our deep defenders and midfielders were made totally ineffective while our forwards failed miserably as they couldn’t get even one penalty-corner.
“It is Pakistan’s worst defeat at the hands of Australia in my 45-year hockey career,” regretted Akhtar.
Pakistan captain Sohail Abbas, meanwhile, hinted at retirement from international hockey. “I will consider retirement after this tournament. At the moment my focus is on the remaining part of Olympics [classification match] and our next target is to deliver our best to finish it with some positive results.”
Earlier in two Group ‘B’ matches, the Netherlands carved out a 4-2 win against South Korea to make the semi-finals as top team from the group, while Belgium compounded India’s misery with a 3-0 victory. In a Group ‘A’ match, Argentina downed South Africa 6-3.
