With the pool stage of the FIH Hockey World Cup for Junior Men complete, eight teams have advanced to the knockout round following a mix of dominant wins and tightly fought contests.

Six group winners – Germany, India, Argentina, Spain, the Netherlands, and France – secured direct entry into the quarterfinals. They are joined by the two best second-placed teams, New Zealand and Belgium. The last-eight matches will be played on December 5.

India finished their pool campaign with a commanding 5-0 win over Switzerland, securing their third straight victory and topping Pool B. Switzerland, unbeaten until this match, settled for second place with six points. Chile finished third and Oman fourth.

India struck early, with Manmeet Singh scoring twice in the 2nd and 11th minutes, and Sharda Nand Tiwari adding a penalty-corner goal to make it 3-0 by the first break. Arshdeep Singh extended the lead in the 28th minute, while Player-of-the-Match Tiwari completed his brace in the 54th minute.

“Happy with the result, but there are a lot of areas to improve,” India coach PR Sreejesh said. “The tournament starts from the next match (quarter-final) onwards. So it’s important for us to focus on those areas.”

India will face Belgium in the quarterfinals. Spain confirmed their Pool D dominance with a 13-0 victory over Namibia in Madurai, completing an unbeaten run to finish atop the group and qualify directly. Namibia ended third with three points.

Bruno Avila led Spain’s scoring with four goals, while Andres Medina and Josep Martin added two each.

“I think that this match was really, really important because it’s going to matter for the quarterfinals,” Spain captain Pablo Roman said. “We scored a lot of goals… Now we have to go to Chennai after a rest day and prepare for the quarters as best as we can.”

Belgium followed with a 10-0 win over Egypt to finish second with six points. Despite earning 19 penalty corners, Belgium converted only four. Maximilian Langer recorded a hat trick.

“We created a lot of chances and showed the perfect mentality,” Belgium captain Lucas Balthazar said. “The last game against Spain didn’t go as we wanted, but we bounced back today.”

A rain-affected match in Chennai saw Chile defeat Oman 2-0 to finish third in Pool B. Both goals came from penalty corners, with Felipe Duisberg scoring in the 10th minute and Tomas Taborga adding another in the 47th.

“It was a tough match,” Chile captain Felipe Richard said. “The pitch had too much water… But I think we did a great job.”

The Netherlands stormed into the quarterfinals with an 11-0 win over Austria, finishing the pool stage with three wins from three. Austria ended last and will play in classification matches.

Dutch captain Casper van der Veen scored a hat trick, with Finn van Bijnen adding two more.

“We are very happy, as we won three times in the group stage,” van der Veen said. “Now we have to step our level up a little bit more.”

England beat Malaysia 3-1 in the same pool but fell short of the high goal difference needed to qualify as one of the top second-placed teams.

“It was not fun (playing in rain)… But we worked through it and got the three points,” England’s Michael Royden said.

France overcame a spirited Bangladesh side 3-2 to top Pool F with a perfect record. Bangladesh finished third with one point.

France took an early lead through Tom Gaillard before Bangladesh equalized before halftime. Goals from Gabin Lorrazuri and James Liddiard restored France’s advantage. Bangladesh’s Amirul Islam converted a late penalty corner to close the gap, but France held on.

“We did very well on the pitch… We are now focused on the quarterfinals,” Liddiard said.

Australia Beat Korea but Fall Short on Goal Difference. Australia needed a sizable win against Korea to keep their quarterfinal hopes alive. Despite a 3-1 victory, they finished with a negative goal difference and were eliminated.

Australia recovered from a 1-1 halftime score with goals from Ian Grobbelaar and Daykin Stanger.

Australia captain Toby Mallon said, “(After) losing that second game to France, we knew it was going to be tough… We need to improve our final pass, the final shot at the goal.”

Quarterfinal Matchups (December 5)

• Spain vs New Zealand
• France vs Germany
• Netherlands vs Argentina
• India vs Belgium

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