Hockey World Cup 2018: France make it to quarters with win over China

“Once the umpire blew the whistle, we were like, phew…” said France midfielder Hugo Genestet.

Such was the frenetic end to the Frenchmen’s seemingly long wait of making a mark after a 28-year-old absence from the Hockey World Cup arena.

World No. 20 France, playing their first World Cup since 1990 and entering as the lowest-ranked team among the 16 that descended in Bhubaneswar, edged past debutants China by a solitary goal in the cross-over encounter to make it to the quarterfinals here on Monday.

And if not for a couple of acrobatic saves by goalkeeper Arthur Thieffry in the last couple of minutes, things could’ve well gone into the penalty shootouts after Timothee Clement gave the French a 1-0 lead in the 36th minute. 

The Chinese earned a penalty corner (PC) late in the final quarter, and with a clever variation by the dragflickers, the ball looked set to find the net until Thieffry stretched his left leg out to block a speedy low flick. 

Seconds later, a needless rough tackle by Hugo gave China another foot in the door via a PC, but this time it was Thieffry’s right hand that saved the day for France.

It was a fitting reward for a French team that has identified this World Cup as a stepping stone to charting an ambitious route towards the podium at the 2024 Olympics to be held in their country.

After a slow start that saw them lose to New Zealand and draw with Spain, France detoured to take the fast lane to the knockouts by stunning Olympic champions Argentina 5-3 in their final league game.

They’ll take on Australia in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, and if they ever needed a gentle reminder about the task at hand, they only needed to look at their opponents on the day.

China went the other way than France, holding the 7th-ranked England in their opener and matching goal for goal with the higher-ranked Ireland too. Yet it was their final pool game against Australia thatseemed to suck the life out of their campaign, the world champions completely blowing them away 11-0.

ENGLAND DOWN NEW ZEALAND

England tasted a neat 2-0 victory over New Zealand in the first cross-over stage encounter of this tournament on Monday. Goals from Will Calnan and Luke Taylor secured the Englishmen’s entry into the quarterfinals, where they will take on Argentina.

STOPWATCH

England 2 (Will Calnan 25, Luke Taylor 44) beat New Zealand 0, France 1 (Timothee Clement 36) beat China 0