Greenshirts bow out of Junior World Cup

ISLAMABAD: Argentina edged out Pakistan 4-3 Sunday to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Junior Hockey World Cup under way in Bhubaneswar (India).

The loss means curtains for the Greenshirts as Germany and Argentina will now progress from Group D to the quarter-finals stage. Pakistan will play for the 12th to 16th positions in the 16-team competition.

Pakistan needed an outright win against South American hockey giants in their last pool match to qualify for the quarter-finals but they could not even came closer to win and were only left pursuing to match their powerful opponents. Yet again Pakistan team failed to score a single goal through field efforts against a team that managed all goals through field play.

The match started on a fast pace with Argentina striking the opener in the 10th minute through Bautista Capurro as he neatly netted opportunity coming his way through field play. Captain Rana Waheed scored through penalty corner to make it 1-1. It only took Argentina three minutes to take 2-1 lead as Ignacio Nardolillo fully utilized defensive error to put his team ahead.

Rizwan Ali converted a penalty stroke in the 28th minute to level the score. Argentinean team then was seen attacking frequently, managing to score through Francisco Ruiz at the stroke of second quarter for 3-2 lead.

Ignacio Ibarra struck through field effort to make it 4-2 for Argentina in the 47th minute to take the game away from Pakistan.

Though Greenshirts reduced the margin through Aqeel Ahmad’s penalty corner goal in the 53rd minute, they never looked threatening to upset Argentina.

Germany that have yet to play their last group match against Egypt is expected to top the pool followed by Argentina. Both teams will now progress to knock out stages from the Group.