Australia thrash Spain with classy show, enter semi-finals

BHUBANESWAR: Defending champions Australia exhibited their penalty corner conversion skills by drubbing lowly-ranked Spain 4-1 to make the semi-finals of the World Hockey League Final at the Kalinga Stadium.

A spirited Blake Govers converted two penalty corners in the last quarter to let everyone know that the world champions had done their homework. On both occasions, he hit the ball low and to the right of the rival custodian.

The other two goals came through shorts corners.

The difference between the sides was evident on Wednesday as Australia were off to a quick start with Dylan Wotherspoon darting into the Spanish citadel twice in the first minute itself. On both occasions, he was foiled by goalkeeper Quico Cortes.

This didn’t have an impact on Spain, who tried hard with a series of attacks. In the seventh minute, Marc Serrahima had an open goal but failed to convert it. In the 20th minute, Marc Garcia shot the ball home from the left flank to leave Australia in a shock.

This sent alarm bells ringing for the Kookaburras and they started to press ahead. After missing the first penalty corner in the 23rd minute, Jeremy Hayward converted the second one to level the score in the 32nd minute. In fact, the drama began in the third quarter when threetime world champions took total control of the proceedings and scored three goals, including two in a minute. Aaron Kleinschmidt converted the team’s third penalty corner to take the score to 2-1, before Govers scored off back-to-back short corners in the 50th minute to make it 4-1.

It was all over for Spain, which had a fifth-place finish at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Marc Garcia sent a few long crosses to Enrique Gonzalez and Marc Salles but they found it hard to make a breach in the Australian defence.