Junior Hockey World Cup: England, Australia book quarterfinal spot

The classification matches for positions ninth-16th would be played on Wednesday with Austria and South Africa facing off to seek a top-10 finish, while New Zealand takes on Malaysia in an attempt to do the same.

Published : Dec 13, 2016 19:29 IST

Australia continued its unbeaten run in the tournament to finish on top of Pool A with nine points after a 5-0 whipping of Korea, who ended at the bottom of the pool.
Australia continued its unbeaten run in the tournament to finish on top of Pool A with nine points after a 5-0 whipping of Korea, who ended at the bottom of the pool.
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Australia continued its unbeaten run in the tournament to finish on top of Pool A with nine points after a 5-0 whipping of Korea, who ended at the bottom of the pool.

England and Australia completed the formalities of qualifying for the quarterfinals of the Men's Hockey Junior World Cup tournament here with convincing victories in their respective league matches here on Tuesday.

Originally supposed to be a rest day for all teams, Tuesday saw the two teams complete their league engagements after dense fog throughout the week had forced the organisers to rework the schedule. Australia continued its unbeaten run in the tournament to finish on top of Pool A with nine points after a 5-0 whipping of Korea, who ended at the bottom of the pool.

The scoreline remained goalless till the 25th minute, when Frazer Gerrard converted a penalty corner to open the scoring. That was, incidentally, the longest period Korea had managed to hold off an opposition from scoring in the competition so far. Olympian Blake Govers added two in two minutes to end Korean hopes in the first half itself.

In Pool D, England finished second behind India, after defeating Canada 6-0 for its second victory courtesy a hat-trick by Edward Horler. To complete the quarterfinals line-up, England would now have to face off against two-time defending champion and title favourite, Germany, in the knockouts, while pool-topper India would be up against an impressive Spain, who finished second in Pool C. Australia would have to contend with Pool B runner-up Netherlands.

Will Calnan and Horler both struck twice each for a comfortable 4-0 cushion at half-time. Horler added a third penalty corner conversion to his tally while Christopher Proctor's reverse hit rounded up the tally. “It was all about going there and doing a job, we knew Canada would be a tough side,” England captain James Gall said, adding that while Germany would be a tough opponent in the quarterfinals, his team was aware and prepared for it. “We have played them a lot, you know what you get with them. They are a good side but we will debrief this performance and have a really good go at them,” he added.

The classification matches for positions ninth-16th would be played on Wednesday with Austria and South Africa facing off to seek a top-10 finish, while New Zealand takes on Malaysia in an attempt to do the same. Bottom-placed sides Canada and Korea face each other and Egypt play Japan with all four hoping to avoid the wooden spoon.

The results: Pool D: England 6 (Edward Horler 3, Will Calnan 2, Christopher Proctor) bt Canada 0; Pool A: Australia 5 (Blake Govers 2, Frazer Gerrard, Max Hendry, Kiran Arunasalam) bt Korea 0.

Wednesday's schedule: Egypt vs Japan (11.15 am), Austria vs South Africa (1.30 pm), Malaysia vs New Zealand (3.45 pm) and Korea vs Canada (6 pm).

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