KUALA LUMPUR: France pulled off a dramatic 3-2 win over Australia to check into the semi-finals of 2023 Men’s Hockey Junior World Cup (JWC) at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil here, yesterday.
The quarter-finals match saw Noe Jouin notched a brace to inspire the last edition’s bronze medalist, France to set up a semi-finals battle against Spain, who downed Pakistan 4-2 in another quarter-final match.
Known as Les Blues, France put up a dominant show when Noe converted a penalty corner in the 17th minute, before Gaspard Denis hammered a field goal to double their lead in the 21st minute.
Noe then netted another penalty corner for the Matthias Dierckens’ side, forcing Australia to launch series of attacks, before finally managing to break the deadlock when Cooper Burns netted two field goals in the 43rd and 48th minute in the attempt to fight back.
However, the Australians failed to break the solid French defence to find the equaliser.
Matthias in the post-match press conference admitted that, his charges’ mistakes had opened up opportunities for Australia to bounced back and close the gap in the second half.
“Just because of an individual player’s mistake on the kick off at the end, we received a yellow card and then we conceded. We were a bit lower on the pitch, but I think we fully deserved the win. I think the boys gave a hard fight to Australia.
“They defended really well so I am really happy with the win, but I think we could have won this game bigger, maybe even 4-1 if we did not make that mistake, I think Australia would not had that momentum to come back into the game and we nearly go to the shootouts,” he said.
Meanwhile, Spain ended an 18-year wait to advance into the semi-finals of JWC after downing Pakistan 4-2 in another quarter-final match yesterday.
It took Pakistan 12 minutes to open the score via a field goal by Abdul Hannan Shahid, but the Junior Red Sticks managed to come back stronger after the break to lead the game when Cabre Verdiell Pol and Aleix Bozal netted a penalty corner each in the 37th and 38th minutes respectively.
World number six Spain then continued their goal scoring feat in the 41st minute after Pablo Espino scored a field goal, but Pakistan reduced the deficit via Muhammad Sufyan Khan’s penalty corner in the 43rd minute, before Cabre’s netted another penalty corner two minutes later.
Spain captain Andreas Rafi, who was happy after his team managed to reach the semi-finals, hopes to continue the winning momentum towards the JWC title.
“It is a success, but we want more. We did very well, we overcome to the difficulties after Pakistan lead 1-0, we stayed calm and that’s will be the key,” he said.
Meanwhile, Spain’s head coach Oriol Torras Puig said he needs to study the pattern of France’s game in order to step into the final.
“We need to watch the videos of France because we know nothing and have no information about France, before this, we only pay attention in my Group and then Pakistan, we only have one day to prepare, I’m not sure if it’s enough,” he said.
Earlier, Germany eliminated defending champions Argentina 2-1 to advance to the semi-finals against India, who beat Netherlands 4-3. — BERNAMA
