SALTA (Argentina): Archrivals Pakistan and India will meet in the Champions Challenge hockey semi-finals after big round-robin wins on Thursday.
Pakistan routed South Africa 4-1 while India overcame Belgium 4-2 to top its pool.
Argentina and New Zealand square off in the other semi-final on Saturday in a repeat of the 2007 final in Belgium, where Argentina won on a golden goal in overtime.
Pakistan and South Africa were locked at 1-1 at halftime, but it was all Pakistan in the second half with scores by Shakeel Abasi, Haseem Khan and Akhtar Ali.
Argentina knew it was already assured of advancing with Pakistan from Pool B, which it still topped even after losing 3-2 to previously winless Canada.
After a scoreless first half, the teams netted five penalty corner goals in the last 20 minutes. Argentina had to equalize twice through Pedro Ibarra, who has a tournament-leading five goals, but Wayne Fernandes scored the winner in injury time.
Argentina and Pakistan finished with 6 points each, and Canada and South Africa
3 each.
Belgium led India 2-1 after two goals a minute apart, the first a penalty shot by Jerome Dekeyser. India leveled before halftime then scored twice more afterward thanks to field goals by Tushar Khandker and Prabhajot Singh to leap over higher-ranked Belgium and Canada into the semis.
New Zealand played beforehand and was desperate to win to be sure of advancing. But China led 1-0 at halftime. Soon after, New Zealand scored twice in two minutes, thanks to Nicholas Wilson and Hugo Inglis, only to concede a 59th-minute tying goal to Liu Yixian, which was how it finished.
India collected 7 points, New Zealand 5, Belgium 3 and China 1. The winner of the tournament qualifies for the Champions Trophy next July in Moenchengladbach, Germany.