GB Men & Women On Course for Quarter Finals

Great Britain’s Men have secured a QF spot, while the Women need a single point with a pool match still to play.

Great Britain: Updates

GB Men had a blip on Tuesday, with a tough 5-1 defeat by Germany. Phil Roper opened the scoring in the ninth minute, but Germany equalised at the end of the first quarter and scored four unanswered second half goals to run away with victory.

This left the Men looking for a win against recently crowned European champions the Netherlands on Thursday. Having gone 2-0 down, it took an almighty fightback with two goals from Sam Ward in the last nine minutes and some outstanding penalty corner defence under extreme pressure before the final whistle. While a total of seven points so far means the Men have now definitely reached the last eight, the final group game against Belgium on Friday remains crucial for the group standings, which determine the quarter final match ups.

Great Britain's Women took a second successive 4-1 victory in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Surbiton’s Hannah Martin was the star of the show with two first half goals, and while India got one back before half time, a Lily Owsley strike and a Grace Balsdon penalty stroke finished a decisive GB victory.

The Women’s penultimate pool game was a replay of the Rio 2016 Final against the Netherlands. GB grew into the game and created a number of unconverted chances in Q2 and Q3, but ultimately couldn’t peg back the penalty stroke scored by the Dutch in the first quarter. The women play Ireland at 12.45pm BST on Saturday in the final group game and (depending on the result of the India vs Ireland game tomorrow) need one point to be sure of a place in the quarter finals.

Other hockey headlines

• South Africa Men took an incredible 4-3 victory over Germany on Thursday morning, stunning the Germans with a final quarter winner.
• Men’s defending champions Argentina have a fight on their hands to qualify for the quarter finals, as they find themselves in a three way battle for two spots with Spain and New Zealand going into the final pool games.
• Australia’s Kookaburras and Hockeyroos both have 100% starts to the competition with four wins out of four.
• Striker Frederique Matla has scored in every game so far for the Netherlands women as they look to top Pool A with maximum points.