Belgium, Germany, Australia advance to semi-finals

Belgium defeated Argentina in a shoot-out to set up a semi-final clash against six-time champions and title holders Germany.

Belgium eked out a 4-1 win over Argentina in the shoot-out after both the teams were locked 1-1 at the end of regulation time in the first quarter-final of the day. Maico Casella (44th minute) scored for Argentina in the regulation time but Victor Wegnez drew level (69th) for Belgium just a minute from the final hooter to take the match into shoot-out. In the shoot-out, Nicolas Poncelet, Arthur de Sloover, Victor Wegnez and Henri Raes converted their chances while Tomas Domene was the lone lucky player for Argentina.

Germany had a relatively easy outing against England as they recorded a comfortable 4-2 win to seal their place in the last-four round. The Germans raced to a two goal lead in the first half through Jan Schiffer (22nd) and Lukas Windfeder (31st) before Florian Scholten (52nd) and Tim Herzbruch (70th) found the net after change of ends for the defending champions. England’s goals came from the sticks of Edward Horler (65th, 66th minutes) in a span of two minutes.

Later in the day, Kiran Arunasalam first scored for Australia with a fine field goal in the 18th minute before Jip Janssen (47th) equalised for Netherlands from a penalty corner. Jack Welch then won it for Australia in the 58th minute to take his side to the semi-finals.