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Hockey World Cup 2018: England oust New Zealand to seal quarters berth

England will face Olympic Champions Argentina in the first quarter-final of the World Cup.

England beat New Zealand 2-0.

Before the start of England and New Zealand’s cross-over tie at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, the organisers did a sound and technology check up on the screen to see there was no hiccup in case the match goes to penalty strokes. With the group stage over, the environment around the stadium was starting to get tense. “Things are going to get serious now” was a common rhetoric among fans and those present at the stadium. Even Indian coach Harendra Singh emphatically announced a day ago – “the tournament has now begun.”

With the tension building Danny Kerry’s England were in no mood to allow the testing of penalty strokes sound in real time. Despite not being able to total dominance in the match, the team in red jersey progressed to the quarterfinal with a 2-0 win.

But things did not start off as well as they had hoped in the quarterfinals.

When the whistle blew to signal the start of the match, New Zealand started off on a positive note – long aerial passes towards the circle and pushed men forward to trouble England. Despite England making one entry inside the circle, The Black Sticks appeared to be the better side at the end of first quarter, enjoying 55 per cent of the possession and making the opposition work hard to get to the ball.

Things barely looked better for England at the beginning of the second half – the defensively strong New Zealand tackled Phil Roper’s threat inside the circle brilliantly, with Nic Woods showcasing his tackling abilities. The Black Sticks pushed England deep in their own half, and they continued to struggled with their finishing in the 23rd. But that remained until England took a leaf out of New Zealand’s book.

Using a long aerial pass to Roper inside the circle, they opened up their attack. The captain lured New Zealand’s goalkeeper Richard Joyce towards him. With plenty of time and space on offer, he calmly passed it to Will Calnan across him, in front of the goal for a tap-in opportunity – 1-0 England in the 25th minute.

Trailing behind, the team in blacks left go of their defensive approach, prompting them to commit errors in the third quarter, one of which allowed Luke Taylor to double the lead at the final minute of the quarter via a penalty corner. “We played well, but then we ended up chasing. We were afraid to lose, we played some good hockey, but at the end we were chasing the game,” New Zealand coach Darren Smith told reporters after the match.

Seeing their time in the tournament coming to an end, New Zealand employed an extra midfielder in Cory Bennett and took out the goalkeeper Joyce. The move made them more vulnerable. A couple of quick penalty corners saw Bennett’s ability being tested – eventually he was hurt and limped off.

By the final whistle, England remained impenetrable. England goalkeeper George Pinner celebrated in his usual acrobatic aerial somersault. New Zealand, on the other hand, put up a brave face, knowing their journey was over.

Next up for England will be the Olympic Champions Argentina. “We know Argentina have a half decent squad.” Roper laughed at the press conference. “But we did pretty good tonight. We got past spaces, we just need to create more chances,, and hopefully that’s how it would go,” he said.