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Hockey World Cup 2018: It’s Netherlands vs Belgium final tonight

Dutchmen stun favourites Australia as Red Lions blank England 6-0 in semifinals

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Netherlands players celebrate their win over Australia in the semifinal of the World Cup in Bhubaneswar on Saturday
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Netherlands goalkeeper Pirmin Blaak saw the ball trickle between his legs and into the goal after being deflected by the body of his own teammate. After keeping the Australians at bay with multiple valiant blocks throughout the match, he let them in with 26 seconds on the clock.

“That was the moment when we were like, ‘Why? Why did we give them a chance’,” Blaak said.

Two-time defending champions Australia celebrated wildly at that chance, the deflated Dutch dropped their heads.

However, armed with a tactical piece of paper, Blaak gathered his composure as Netherlands beat the mighty Aussies 4-3 in the penalty shootouts after a heart-stopping regulation time 2-2 finish to enter the final of the Hockey Men’s World Cup here on Saturday.

Blaak denied the Aussies two times in the shootouts but so did his counterpart Andrew Charter. Jeroen Hertzberger put all the onus on the Aussies by converting his first shot in the sudden death, and Blaak seized the opportunity with a cool-as-a-cucumber save against a charging Daniel Beale to set up Holland’s title clash with Belgium on Sunday.

Walking into the high-pressure penalty shootouts, the 30-year-old Blaak carried a piece of paper that had in it an analysis of all Australian players’ preferred play in the shootouts over the last two years. But with Australia leading 2-1 after three shots, Blaak had enough of the theory.   

“I put the paper away and told myself, ‘follow your heart and do it’,” Blaak said.

“I prepared all the shootouts, wrote down all the preferences of their players. But after three shots, I threw it away because it was in my head too much,” he added.

Just like the Dutch were in the head of Australia at the start.If the three-time world champions had any aura of invincibility walking into the semifinal battle, the fourth-ranked Netherlands were quick to dismiss it, earning the first penalty corner (PC) of the game in just the fourth minute. They couldn’t capitalise on it, yet it sent out a statement.

Belgium maul England

Olympic silver medallist Belgium make their maiden appearance in the World Cup final, thrashing England 6-0 in the first semi-final on Saturday.Alexander Hendrickx (45th, 50th minutes) converted two penalty corners, while Tom Boon (8th), Simon Gougnard (19th), Cedric Charlier (42nd) and Sebastien Dockier (53rd) were the other goal scorers for World No 3 side.

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