Consolation win for India

“You beat Argentina and get a chance to beat your arch-rivals Pakistan next.” This was the only motivation for Indian juniors as they began afresh their Junior World Cup campaign for the 9th to 16th qualification slot at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here on Thursday.

Indian forwards took hardly any time to breach a fragile Argentinean defence as Ramandeep Singh opened up the scoring with an acute angle finish from the right side of the goal post in the 4th minute. This only looked like the beginning of many more to come as the Argentines squad was unable to trap the ball cleanly during the first 15 minutes.

Stopwatch: The Netherlands 3 bt New Zealand 2; England 6 bt Egypt 1; France 5 bt Belgium 4; Spain 3 bt Canada 2; Malaysia 2 bt Korea 1; Pakistan 4 bt South Africa 0; Germany 4 bt Australia 3; India 3 bt Argentina 2

Playing Today (Live on Ten Sports)
Belgium vs Korea, 1.15pm; France vs Malaysia, 3.30pm; New Zealand vs Australia, 5.45pm; Netherlands vs Germany, 8pm

Semifinal line-up: France vs Malaysia; The Netherlands vs Germany