Hockey World Cup: England stun Argentina 3-2 to progress into semi-finals

Late flurry of goals helped England stun Olympic champions Argentina 3-2 and advance into the semi-finals of hockey World Cup in Bhuvneshwar on Wednesday.

Will Calnan (45^th minute) and Harry Martin (49^th) scored four minutes from each other to complete a marvellous comeback after Barry Middleton (27^th) had cancelled Gonzalo Peillat’s 17th-minute opening strike to make it England’s third successive semi-final appearance in the elite competition.

England will face the winner of the quarterfinal match between Germany and Belgium on Saturday.

The reigning Olympic champions had themselves to blame for the defeat having missed several open chances to score on the night.

Argentina took the lead in the 17^th minute through Peillat, who scored with a powerful flick after goalkeeper Juan Vivaldi had denied England from back-to-back penalty-corners.

But England could have equalised just seconds after their opponents had taken the lead only for David Condon to miss a sitter. Middleton, however, brought them back into the contest with a powerful low thrust into the net when Mark Gleghorne cross from the right was only partially cleared by the Argentine backline.

After two goals, the game suddenly took a weird turn with both sides now happy to defend deep at 1-1. The game then burst to life in the final quarter with three more goals bring scored, two of which came from victorious England.

The first of those two came in the opening minute of the final quarter when England were awarded consecutive penalty corners for a foul on Zachary Wallace. Calnan took both the hits and put England ahead from his second hit. But Peillat once again brought his side back into the contest with another conversion of a PC before Martin scored a last-minute winner to send England through.

Also read: Australia beat France 2-0 to advance to semi-finals