The Hindu: Argentina to fight it out with Belgium

Argentina and Belgium reached the Olympic Games hockey final for the first time on Tuesday as defending champion Germany and fellow favourite the Netherlands came up short.

Argentina stunned Germany, the gold medallist in 2008 and 2012, 5-2 while Belgium clinched a 3-1 semifinal win over neighbour the Netherlands, the 1996 and 2000 champion.

The South Americans pounced on a German team which only squeezed into the semifinals by scoring three times in the closing five minutes to beat New Zealand in the last-eight, 3-2.

Defender Gonzalo Peillat hit a hat-trick of penalty-corners with Joaquin Menini and Lucas Vila giving Argentina a 5-0 lead.

Menini’s 35th-minute goal was the pick of the bunch for an Argentina team which will win its first medal in men’s hockey. Agustin Mazzilli escaped a defender to lift the ball over German goalkeeper Nicolas Jacobi for his teammate to tap home.

Peillat takes tally to 10

Peillat’s triple took his total for the tournament to 10. “We watched a lot of videos of the Germans before this game. We had three corners in the first part of the game and then we scored three-from-three, so it was good, happy,” said 24-year-old Peillat.

Moritz Furste and Christopher Ruhr scored late consolation strikes for Germany.

Argentina was also indebted to goalkeeper Juan Vivaldi who pulled off 10 saves in total