Russia 2 Chile 1

Champion's Challenge II: Day four results

Russia 2 (Alexander Likov, Alexandre Platonov) Chile 1 (Thomas Kannegiesser)

RUSSIA'S greater proficiency in both circles proved the vital factor as Chile created much but threatened little except in the closing four minutes.

Alexander Likov’s 14th minute reverse-stick effort was the sole highlight of the first half as the South American side let four penalty corners slip through their fingers.

Their fifth and sixth corners were comfortably dealt with by Roman Rogov just after the break, too, before Chile goalkeeper Mauro Scaff produced the save of the day.
Diving the opposite direction, he got a strong glove to Sergey Kostarev’s point-blank deflection from the Russian’s first corner of the game in the 44th minute.
And with Alexis Berzcely in the sin-bin, Russia began to turn the screw, winning three corners. The game-winning goal eventually came with seven minutes to go from a pitch-length move.
Felipe Montegu appeared to be heftily fouled but no free ensued. A superb break-out ended with skipper Alexandre Platonov and Alexey Mamoshkin exchanging three passes to round Scaff, the former roll into the open net.
Chile pulled one back with two minutes to left - Thomas Kanegiesser snapping up at the third attempt from Sebastian Kapsch’s wriggle down the left touch-line.
And they had a chance to force extra-time seconds later from their seventh corner but - after a lengthy discussion at the top of the circle - the move broke down at the switch phase.
Russia, therefore, qualify for Sunday's 5th place playoff against Japan while Chile play Austria for the 7th place ranking points.