In the second match of an already astonishing day of men’s quarter-final hockey at Paris 2024, Spain produced a masterclass in game management to end Belgium’s hopes of winning a second successive Olympic gold medal.
The Red Sticks emerged 3-2 winners against the Tokyo 2020 champions to reach their first Olympic semi-final since Beijing 2008, where a team containing generational talents such as Pol Amat, Santi Freixa and Edi Tubau went on to become silver medallists.
After two goal-less quarters, the match burst into life in the third period when Jose Basterra fired home, with Belgium finding an immediate response from Arthur de Sloover. Spain, fourth place finishers in Pool A, continued to frustrate Pool B winners Belgium, who failed to find their usual attacking rhythm in front of a packed Yves-du-Manoir Hockey Stadium.
The match turned in Spain’s favour five minutes from time, Marc Reyne netting from close range before team captain Marc Miralles fired home a penalty corner two minutes later to take the score to 3-1. Belgium hit back immediately thanks to a penalty corner rocket from Alexander Hendrickx, but it proved not enough as Spain held on for a famous victory.
“I’m so happy right now”, said Miralles after the match. “I'm really proud of how we played the whole game. We moved the ball really well, we communicated really well. We defended so good all the time. When we were suffering, they were controlling the game, but we knew how to manage those situations. We scored the chances we have, which I think we needed to improve a little bit (from the pool phase) and today it was perfect.”
When asked about how his team approached their match against the vastly experienced Belgians, Miralles said: “I think everyone knew we had to keep the ball moving with patience, and defend really well. They've been playing together, the core of the team, for so many years. They almost play by memory because they know each other so well.”
“Defending was the key today and we were really focused on that and (keeping possession of) the ball. We just trust our strength. We have very skilful, very fast players. We're good with the ball as well. And I really liked my team, so we had to trust each other and be patient.”
Spain’s opponents in the semi-final will be either the Netherlands or Australia, who play their quarter-final match at Yves-du-Manoir at 17:30 CEST. Commenting on Spain’s ambitions, Miralles said: "I’m feeling so confident right now. Yes, the sky's the limit, but we have to be very careful with what we say and how we feel. I'm sure everyone when they win the quarter-final, they will feel the same.”
“We have four teams in the semi-finals and everyone wants to win the gold, but only one team will make it so we have to be very happy right now. Once we go back to the village, we have to recover we'll watch the other quarter-finals. We’ll prepare for the game, get ourselves ready.”
In today’s first quarter-final, ten-man India claimed a remarkable victory over Great Britain to reach the quarter-finals for the second successive Olympic Games. To read more about this, click here.
The hockey competitions at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 take place from Saturday 27 July to Friday 9 August. Both the men’s and women’s competitions feature 12 teams, split into two pools of six ahead of quarter-finals, semi-finals and medal matches. For more information about the hockey competitions at Paris 2024, visit Olympics.Hockey.
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