Another Belgium show...

The final round of pool matches in the men's GANT EuroHockey Championship saw England crush France and Germany outclass Russia before the encounter between Netherlands and Ireland turned into a 7-4 goalfest. The day ended with the day's highest stakes game, in which Belgium narrowly defeated Spain for their place in the semi-finals and ticket to London.
The day ended with the day's biggest game, the direct clash for second place in Pool A: it was London or qualifier time for Spain and Belgium. Once more cheered on by the largest and loudest group of supporters, Belgium started hungrier, more aggressive, and more dangerous than the Spaniards. Against the run of play however, it was Roc Oliva who found the net first for the Iberians with a brilliant reverse stick mid air swing. With the Belgians visibly disheartened, the Spaniards started gathering steam, and added their second ten minutes later, at the hands of Juan Fernandez. Belgium recovered fast, and began playing with more structure and effectiveness, and finally became able to put pressure on their opponents - for the moment without being able to make it count however, and the teams went into half time at 2-0 in Spain's favor.
Belgium were far from done however, and five minutes into the second half, a fantastic reverse stick shot by Max Luycx from the edge of the circle put the Red Devils back in hot pursuit. A controversial penalty corner little later saw Tom Boon put a powerful ball into the bottom left corner for the equalizer which saw the stands erupt in celebration - a draw would already have been enough for Belgium to secure their ticket to London. Nonetheless, Jérôme Dekeyser added one more for a clean victory, sealing Spain's fate and slip into the relegation pool.
The semi-finals in the men's tournament will thus see Belgium take on their neighbours from the Netherlands, while Germany clash with England. In the relegation pool, Spain are at the top thanks to their 5-0 win over Russia, followed by Ireland who take their 2-0 against France with them into pool C.