England’s World is shattered

ENGLAND must dig deep to try to salvage a bronze medal from the wreckage of their World Cup dream.

Danny Kerry’s side were on the receiving end of a 6-0 semi-final thrashing by Belgium in Bhubaneswar, India yesterday, and now face a bronze medal play-off against Australia at 11am today.

The Aussies beat England 3-0 in the Pool stage, but England’s young squad recovered to perform superbly to reach the last four of the tournament.

However, with their first World Cup final for 32 years in their sights, they were unable to cope with Belgium.

Kerry said: “We have grown and developed as a group on and off the pitch, and we’ve demonstrated resilience during a long tournament here in the sub continent.

“However, Belgium were the better side today and we will keep perspective.

“Our roles now are to regroup and prepare for the bronze medal match, it is a great opportunity to continue our progression.”

Co-captain Phil Roper said, “We didn’t really put our game out there.

“The Belgians played a really good game and we want to be more competitive than that.

“For us, you can’t go into a World Cup semifinal and not put your game out there and stick to the plan.

“We have to move on quickly now.”

Defending champions Australia lost to Holland 4-3 on penalties after a 2-2 draw in yesterday’s other semi-final.