Australia retains HWL Finals crown

The final of the Hockey World League Finals saw Olympic champion Argentina face-off against world champion Australia and the latter won the battle of champions 2-1 to retain the title.

Australian players celebrate after their victory in Bhubaneswar on Sunday.

The final of the Hockey World League Finals saw Olympic champion Argentina face-off against world champion Australia and the latter won the battle of champions 2-1 to retain the title. Having started off slowly in the tournament, the Aussies had picked up steam with the beginning of the knockout stages and on Sunday, it fired on all cylinders to strangle Argentina.

READ: HWL Finals: India edges Germany to bronze medal

A brilliant hit in from Lucas Rossi saw Agustin Bugallo slot the ball into the net less than a minute after Australia went ahead on the 17 minute but that was to be its only consolation. Even though the Argentines had more shots at the goal, the difference between the two sides was in the execution of penalty corners. Gonzalo Peillat was unable to find a way past goalkeeper Tyler Lovell as Argentina wasted four PCs while Australia scored off both the chances it got.

The last couple of minutes saw Argentina go all out for a desperate equaliser but Diego Paz's shot went wide.

The result: Final: Australia 2 (Jeremy Hayward, Blake Govers) beat Argentina 1 (Agustin Bugallo); bronze medal: India 2 (SV Sunil, Harmanpreet Singh) bt Germany 1 (Mark Appel).