Hockey World Cup 2018: England vs Australia

Australia defeats England 8-1 to pick up the bronze medal of the 2018 Hockey World Cup at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.

Updated : Dec 16, 2018 18:07 IST , Bhubaneswar

A general view of the Kalinga stadium, the venue of the 2018 Hockey World Cup.
A general view of the Kalinga stadium, the venue of the 2018 Hockey World Cup.
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A general view of the Kalinga stadium, the venue of the 2018 Hockey World Cup.

 

FULL TIME. Australia defeats England 8-1 to win itself the bronze medal. Medal number ten in the World Cup for the Kookaburras and England ends this tournament on a disappointing note, conceding fourteen goals in its last two games. The team from Down Under was in full control from the start and the scoreline reflects its domination today. We'll back soon for the final of the 2018 Hockey World Cup between Belgium and Netherlands.

60'Hayward makes no mistake this time and scores Australia's eighth of the day. His shot fizzes past Gibson with seconds left in the game.

59' Blake's flick wins Australia a penalty corner with a minute and two seconds left in the game. Govers takes it and it deflects off the post before Australia wins another penalty corner.

56' Govers spins inside the circle and wins a penalty corner. And Australia scores a seventh! Jeremy Hayward with his third of the World Cup. Six goal lead restored.

55' Australia gets a free hit after the ball bounces off the leg of an England player. And it is in no hurry to take this free hit.

53' England wants a penalty corner and takes a referral after the referee doesn't give it one. And they get one. Good call by Middleton to ask for a referral. Taylor takes it low and it saved by Charter's legs again.

51' Ames finds Middleton to start a counter but a mix up in communication sees the ball just run out of play.

48' Roper's shot on the counter is saved by Charter, with the keeper falling onto the ball. And the referee has award England a penalty corner but Australia has asked for a referral. The players claim there's a backstick in the build up and they are right. Penalty corner overturned.

45' ENGLAND SCORES! Middleton get to a Phil Roper pass at the far post and there's no one marking him. Charter goes down after Middleton faked a shot, leaving him an empty goal to finish into. A consolation goal, if any. And he barely celebrates. With that the third quarter comes to an end.

41' Australia has the ball in the England goal again but the referee blew his whistle before the ball went it. it hit the attacker's foot in the buildup and the goal doesn't stand.

39' Harry Martin passes into the circle to Barry Middleton but Charter is off his line quickly to block his shot. Charter gets a friendly pat from Middleton after that.

36' The day gets worse for England. Looks Like Liam Ansell is injured. He gets medical attention on the pitch but it doesn't look like he will carry on.

34' Tim Brand finished off a fine Mitton goal for the fifth while Craig gets the sixth and completes his hat-trick. Incredible two minutes from Australia. England lost 6-0 to Belgium in the semifinals and finds it's 6-0 down again, but we are only at the midway stage of this match. Long night left for it.

34' Before England could settle down after conceding, Australia has a fifth goal! Mitton ran all across the left wing and passed it to ....WAIT IT IS 6-0!

32'GOAL! Australia has a fourth! A minute later, Brand wins Australia a penalty corner. Govers takes it and it is well saved by Gibson. The rebound falls to Trent Mitton who scores his first goal of the tournament. That is also his first ever World Cup goal.

31' 13 seconds into the third quarter and England wins a penalty corner. Luke Taylor takes it and it is easily saved by Andrew Charter with his right foot.

HALF TIME Australia takes a comfortable 3-0 lead into the break. England has a tough task at hand as it tries to avoid another fourth-placed finish at a World Cup.

 

28' Govers, who seems to be back to normal, sees his shot bounce off the post. Gibson came out to close him down but he got his shot off and almost started celebrating before the ball bounced out off the post.

26' Luke Taylor with a lovely long pass into the circle but its just ahead of Zachary Wallace. Meanwhile, Govers looks like he's injured. He sits down for a few seconds and gets back up, but there seems to a limp in his running. That'd be a big loss for Australia if he can't shave off whatever's troubling him.

STAT: Australia has had 45% of its attacks today from the middle. England's midfield has given way each time it was under pressure.

21' England looks understandably demoralised. It came back in the second quarter looking to get a goal back but a brilliant counter-attack from Australia, which is aiming for its tenth medal at a World Cup, has put the task further away from its reach.

 

19' GOAL! Australia has a third. A team goal this time. Tom Craig gets the ball, passes to Jake Harvie and continues his run. Harvie passes to Govers, who passes it back to Craig before Gibson could dive and intercept. With an open goal in front, Craig makes no mistake and gets his second of the day.

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Tom Craig and Blake Govers celebrate the former's second goal of the day.
 

15' Tyler Lovell with a good block to deny Liam Ansell from close quarters after Mark Gleghorne's lead-up play. And with that, the first quarter comes to an end.

13' Australia started the game on the backfoot but two goals in the space of a minute have put the Kookaburras in control of the game now.

11' England asks for a referral after the referee gives Australia a penalty corner. The replays back them up and the original decision is overturned to an England free hit. And it keeps the referral.

9'Australia scores again! Tome Craig with the goal now. He receives a pass from Tim Brand and see his shot saved by Gibson but the rebound kindly falls back to him and he doesn't make a mistake the second time. The build up that goal saw a cross field aerial ball expertly brought under control by Brand. Unbelievable attacking intent on display by Australia.

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Tom Graig, at the second time of asking, has doubled Australia's lead.
 

8' GOAL! Blake Govers scores his seventh of the tournament and Australia takes the lead! He received the ball, took a step inside the circle and his tomahawk blazes past the keeper. Beautiful technique that.

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Govers celebrates after scoring the opening goal of the match.
 

7' Blake Govers takes it and his shot is deflected well over.

6' Australia wins a penalty corner and England players, led by Adam Dixon, lead the protests. And they chose not to ask for a referral.

5' England with a lot of the attacking play in the opening five minutes. Australia happy to sit back and defend for the most part.

STAT: These two teams have faced each other 28 times, with the team from Down Under winning 21 times and England only four times.

2' Composed under pressure by Liam Sanford to bring the ball out of the defence.

1' Australia gets the first quarter underway.  These two teams met in the pool stage earlier in the tournament, where Australia won 3-0.

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• National anthems are done and we are minutes away from start of the match. Who will pick up the bronze medal today? Let us know either on Twitter or on Facebook .

 

• First thing that stands out if you look at the team sheets is that George Pinner is replaced in the English goal by Harry Gibson. A rest for the skipper? Or the result of conceding six goals against Belgium yesterday?

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• Here's how England and Australia lineup for today's game:

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Sand art in Bhubaneswar for the Hockey World Cup final today.
 

• England was brushed aside by an impressive Belgium side in the first semifinal yesterday while two-time defending champion Australia — which equalised in the final minute of regulation time after going two goals down — lost in the shootout to Netherlands in the second semifinal . Here's our report on both those games.

 

• England and Australia lost their semifinal matches yesterday but there's still some glory to play for today — the bronze medal.

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