Paris: The Netherlands registered an emphatic 4-0 victory against Spain in the first semifinal of the men’s hockey event of the 33rd Olympic Games at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium here on Tuesday. The win has guaranteed a medal for the Dutch as they will play either India or Germany in the gold medal l depending on the result of the second semifinal due to be played later in the day.
Gold medallists in back-to-back Games in 1996 at Atlanta and 2000 at Sydney, the Netherlands had won silver medals in Athens 2004 and London 2012, Holland are assured of winning their 10th medal in the Olympics and will be fighting for the third gold medal.
In the semifinals played on Tuesday, the Spaniards struggled to get into goal-scoring positions with their best chances coming through the five penalty corners they won but failed to convert any. The Netherlands on the other hand were ruthless in front of the goal and converted four of their 11 attempts at goal.
The eventual winners started the game as they meant to carry on and did not take too long to find their first breakthrough which came in the 12th minute of the game through a penalty stroke converted by defender Jip Janssen.
The Dutch did not take their foot off the gas despite the early goal and doubled the advantage in the 20th minute through captain Thierry Brinkman’s field goal which saw them go into half-time with a 2-0 lead.
The story of the second half was quite similar to the first as the Dutch opened the scoring two minutes into the third quarter through forward Thijs Van Dam’s field goal.
Substitute Duco Telgenkamp went on to score the final dagger in the 50th minute to put the game to bed and seal the 4-0 victory.
The Netherlands had reached the semifinal after beating Australia 2-0 in the quarter-finals. In the group stage, they had defeated Spain, South Africa and France, drew with Great Britain (2-2) and lost to Germany which saw them finish second in Pool B.
–IANS
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