India faces Wales in its final Pool D match on Thursday at the Hockey World Cup 2023. Having already secured four points, India is guaranteed to make it to the crossover fixtures.
For India to secure an outright qualification, it has to not only win its last game against Wales, but it also needs to better England’s winning margin by at least four goals.
England beat Spain 4-0 in the Pool D match earlier on Thursday and has a goal difference of nine. India’s goal difference ahead of the Wales match is two. Thus, India needs to win by a margin of eight goals to make it directly to the last eight.
If India wins just by seven goals and equals England’s goal difference, tie-breaker scenarios will come into play.
Goals Scored
Even if India equals England’s goal difference it can go through by virtue of goals scored. This allows India the scope to concede goals and still make it.
If India scores eight goals or more, and maintains a goal difference of seven, it will advance to the quarterfinals.
For example, if India wins 9-2 against Wales, it will go through. In this case, India will have scored 11 goals to England’s nine goals in the group stage. Similarly, if India wins 10-3, it will advance.
Field goals scored
The next tie breaker between teams is number of field goals scored. India has one field goal while England has six.
Therefore, if India is not able to better the goals-scored criteria mentioned above, it will need to score six field goals.
If India wins by an exact 7-0 score line, and it scores five field goals against Wales, England and India will be tied on all criteria. Then India and England face each other in a penalty shootout.
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