Koreans end Scottish hopes of reaching last eight

● Defeat in final pool game dashes World League hopes

Scotland’s dream of a place in the quarter-finals of the World League in Brussels foundered on a punishing 5-0 defeat at the hands of Korea yesterday.

The result leaves the Scots bottom of their pool and Gordon Shepherd’s charges will now have to be content with the 9th-tenth play-off on Thursday, probably against Malaysia, who are presently bottom of the other pool.

In the early exchanges, the game could have gone either way, Amy Gibson in the Scotland goal was forced into a good save at a Korean penalty corner, but the Scots broke to the other end and won a setpiece only to be overturned by a video referral.

Perhaps against the run of play, Korea took the lead with a superb deflection by Eunbe Cheon. The Asians could well have doubled their tally at a soft penalty corner but Gibson was again equal to the task with a save down low to her right.

Scotland’s first real chance of the half emanated from good build-up play by Sarah Robertson up the left but Fiona Burnet’s finish was denied by a goalline clearance.

Korea doubled their lead towards the end of the first half. Gibson saved the first penalty corner but Seul Ki Cheon fired the second award into the left-hand corner.

The Scots had the chance to pull one back early in the second half but Sarah Jamieson failed to get her shot on target.

The stuffing was knocked out of the Scots with three further goals for Korea in 12 minutes, Seul Ki Cheon completed her hat-trick with two further goals while Hyejeong Shin added another.

Tenacious play by Millie Brown won a penalty corner for Scotland but Amy Costello’s effort was deflected over the bar by a Korean defender.

In the other pool match earlier in the day, world No 1 Netherlands beat China 1-0 and secured top place in the group.

Neil Menzies, Scotland’s assistant coach, said: “It was close in the early stages but we just didn’t create enough and didn’t get outcomes when we got circle entries.

“We know we have the potential to go further and we’re bitterly disappointed. We’re proud of the players but disappointed to not get to the quarter-finals. Now we’ll build towards the European Championships in August.”

0 Kate Holmes shows the pain of defeat at the end of the game.