Indian Express: Junior Hockey World Cup: Australia, Belgium sail into quarterfinals

Australia will play Netherlands while Belgium will be up against Argentina in the quarterfinals scheduled for Thursday.

Pre-tournament favourites Australia and Belgium comfortably secured their berths in the quarterfinals of the men’s Junior Hockey World Cup with resounding wins over their respective opponents at the Major Dhyan Chand Astroturf Stadium on Monday.

While Australia defeated surprise element Austria 4-1 in Pool A, Netherlands thrashed lowly Egypt 7-0 in a Pool B fixture.

With two wins from as many matches, Australia are leading Pool A with six points and they are set to top the pool even if they lose against Korea in their final match which looks highly unlikely.

Argentina, who beat Korea 5-1 in another Pool A match on Monday, narrowly scrapped past Austria to qualify for the quarterfinals because of a better goal difference. Both Argentina and Austria finished their pool engagements with four points from three games but the former sailed through by virtue of two-goal advantage.

Belgium, on the other hand, finished on top of Pool B with an all-win record followed by Netherlands, who ended second with six points from three matches.

Belgium on Monday defeated Malaysia 3-0 to register their third consecutive win in the tournament. In the opening match of the day between Australia and Austria, Joshua Simmonds (4th minute), Lachlan Sharp (24th), Blake Govers (45th) and Jack Welch (46th) scored for the winners while Austria’s goals came from the sticks of Phillip Schippan (8th) and Franz Lindengrun (67th).

In the second match of the day, Argentina scored through Martin Ferreiro (2nd), Tomas Domene (12th), Thomas Habif (14th), Nicolas Keenan (29th, 50th), while Korea’s lone goal was scored by Joohan Park (41st).

The first match of Pool B was a one-sided affair as Netherlands streamrolled Egypt with goals from Thijs van Dam (7th), Jip Janssen (9th, 54th), Bram van Groesen (25th), Thierry Brinkman (37th), Sebastian van der Graaf (45th) and Noud Schoenaker (58th) to register their second win in the tournament.

Later in the day, Belgium scored through Gregory Stockbroekx (10th), Quentin van Lierde (33rd) and Thomas Verheijen (55th) to keep a clean slate in the pool stages.

Irrespective of the result of their last pool match, Australia will play Netherlands while Belgium will be up against Argentina in the quarterfinals scheduled for Thursday.