Hockey World Cup 2023: Three-time champions Australia and defending champions Belgium defeated their rivals in the quarter-finals of the Hockey World Cup 2023 on Tuesday. 0 against New Zealand.
With the win over Spain, Australia made their 12th straight World Cup semi-final appearance. Winners of the 1986, 2010 and 2014 editions, Australia have made the semi-finals of the World Cup 11 times since the 1978 edition in Buenos Aires. They had lost to the Dutch in the semi-finals in the penalty shootout in the last edition here in 2018. Belgium suffered a blow just before the quarter-final match, as their star penalty corner specialist Alexander Hendrickx was ruled out for the remainder of the tournament. On 20 January, he twisted his knee in their final Pool B match against Japan.
Belgium will now await the winner of Wednesday’s quarter-final between England and Germany in the semi-finals, while title contenders Australia will face the winner of the last-eight match between the Netherlands and South Korea. It was a close affair in the Australia v Spain quarter-final match but two penalty corner strikes by Jeremy Hayward in the third quarter made the difference. Spain captain Marc Miralles made a costly mistake as he failed to score from a penalty stroke four minutes from the final hooter as his team trailed 3-4. Had he scored, the match would have gone to a shootout.
Hayward scored in the 33rd and 37th minutes, while Flynn Ogilvie (30th) and captain Eran Zalewski (32nd) scored for Australia. Javier Gispert (20th), Marc Ricksens (24th) and Miralles (41st) scored for Spain, who will now return home. Spain denied Australia playing their fast-paced one-touch game in the first quarter. Australia though earned three penalty corners in the first 15 minutes but could not score a single one. Spain scored two fine field goals in the 24th minute through Gispert and Rekassens to take a 2–0 lead.
But just seconds before the second quarter Australia mounted a comeback and Ogilvie found himself unchallenged by Matt Dawson’s pass into the Spanish striking circle. Ogilvie hit hard and beat the goalkeeper to relieve the pressure. If Spain were the better side in the second quarter, Australia were clearly the dominant team in the third as they scored three of the four goals scored in that period.