Spain will meet Argentina while Germany face India in the men’s semi-finals on Sunday of the FIH Junior Cup following a thrilling series of quarter-finals.
Bruno Avila was the Spanish hero as he struck from a corner in the final minute to defeat New Zealand 4-3. The Spanish side had led 3-0 in the first quarter thanks to Nicolas Mustaros, Josep Martin and Albert Serrahima’s field goals.
But the Blacksticks fought back and got level with less than a minute of normal time to go, only to concede mere seconds later.
“We have qualified and feel so happy. It was a very hard match,” said Spain’s Pere Amat. “In the first half, we were so good and dominated the match. In the second half, it was a little harder with the cards and with goals by them (New Zealand).
“We just defended and defended before finally winning the match with a goal in the last minute.”
Germany won through to the final four as they defeated France via a shoot-out in what was a repeat of the 2023 final.
The Germans won the shootout 3-1 to become the second team to enter the semis, with Jonas von Gersum, Justus Warweg and Lukas Kossel converting for the reigning champions.
For France, only Aristide Michaelis was able to beat German goalkeeper Jasper Ditzer, who foiled three French attempts to earn the Player-of-the-Match award.
Normal time saw Germany lead twice with Alex von Schwerin and Malo Martinache trading goals in the first half and Paul Glander and Hugo Dolou swapped goals after the big break.
Speaking after the match, German captain Ben Hasbach said: “It’s an amazing feeling. It was a very good team effort. We had a difficult first half but fought our way back into the game in the second half to win it; we deserved it.
“Over the whole year, we have been good in the last (two) quarters. We are a very good team and brought that to the pitch today.”
The Netherlands search for this title continues as they were undone 1-0 by Argentina with Tomas Ruiz’s single goal all that stood between the teams.
Belgium’s medal chase also came to an end in the quarters as they missed out in a shoot-out against India 4-3 after normal time ended 4-3.
