The Netherlands ran riot against South Korea to a 5-1 victory to advance to the semi-finals

Holland defeated South Korea 5-1 in the last quarter-final match of the FIH Odisha Hockey Mens. World Cup 2023 will advance to the semi-finals of the tournament at the Kalinga Stadium on Wednesday.

The Dutch team will now face Belgium in the semi-finals on January 27.

Holland and Korea played a fascinating first quarter in the quarterfinals. It was end-to-end action as both teams wanted to play counter-attacks and managed to find spaces through the midfield to successfully penetrate the opponents’ circles.

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Both teams also won 2 penalty corners each, but all 4 penalty corners were narrowly missed, thanks to some brave running by the number 1 defenses. The Netherlands had the best chance from open play when Pieters made a brilliant run from his own circle to the Korean circle, but his shot was well saved by Jaehyeon Kim.

The second quarter was much the same as the teams exchanged the ball on counterattacks. Korea had a great opportunity with one of their attacks, which was triggered by a turnover midway through. Hwangs driven pass into the circle almost found a diving Junwoo, but Lars Balk got the decisive touch just before the pass reached Junwoo to send the ball out over the baseline.

The Netherlands opened the game in the 27th minute when Thierry Brinkman broke through the Korean defense on the right and his attempted pass was almost cut out to Jungjun, but he failed to make clean contact with the ball and Koen Bijen was behind him to grab it. onto a loose ball and slotted it into the back of the net to give the Netherlands a lead they would carry into the interval.

Holland won an early penalty corner early in the second half, and although Kim saved Jansens’ flick, Bijen collected the rebound brilliantly and tapped the ball into the reverse side to double the Netherlands’ lead. The Netherlands sensed the change in momentum and kept the pressure on the Koreans.

The pressure from the Dutch immediately paid off as they scored the third goal when Jip Janssens’ flip pass deflected off the top of the circle. Justen Blok scored his second consecutive goal after finding the net in the Netherlands’ previous match against Chile.

The Netherlands added a fortuitous goal early in the fourth quarter when Seunghoon’s attempted interception of Heijningen’s pass ended up flying over the keeper and into the goal. Korea would finally end the Netherlands’ run of 15 straight quarters without scoring through Seo Inwoo, but a four-goal deficit made a comeback look unlikely.

The Netherlands added the final goal of the contest in the 58th minute when Teun Beins headed in a penalty corner won by captain Thierry Brinkman to give the Dutch a comfortable 5-1 win and take them to their fourth straight FIH Hockey Mens semi-final. World Cup.

Koen Bijen, who scored the first two goals of the Dutch team, was awarded as the player of the match.

More than 25 goals scored and one goal conceded shows that we have had a great tournament. Our defense is really solid and makes us build our offense. Congratulations to Korea as well. They played a really good tournament and played very well in this game as well. We enjoy playing against Belgium, we play them quite often in Europe, so take the semi-final in,” said Bijen.

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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)