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Spain have claimed the last remaining place in the semi finals of the Samsung Hockey World Cup with a tense draw over England enough to see them through to the final four in Madrid this afternoon.
It's Spain's first appearance in a World Cup semi final since the inaugural tournament in 1971 and a huge boost for the tournament after they were though to be among the bottom four sides at the start of the tournament.
Ranked 10th in the world, the home team are an unlikely semi finalist but have proved all the week the advantage of a heavily-stacked defence to record three wins, a draw and a loss from five matches.
England had to win the match to take Spain's place and looked out of the contest until five minutes before full time when Mel Clewlow snuck a penalty corner strike underneath the Spanish goalkeeper to give her team the chance of a comeback.
After Spain snatched the first half lead, they sat back and defended for almost the entire second 35 minutes ÔÇô a tactic that eventually prevailed despite some pressurised moments late in the match.
Like other teams all week, England found it almost impossible to unlock the Spanish defence, but had their opportunities before falling one goal short of their target.
In the two matches on Pitch 2, Japan and USA confirmed their participation in the playoffs for places 5-8 with a pair of convincing victories against South Africa and Korea respectively.
The bottom four teams in Pool B were separated by just two points heading into the day's round, with each having a chance to jump into third or fourth on the points table.
Japan was rarely troubled against South Africa, especially after they opened a two-goal lead inside 10 minutes and then added another before half time to end the match as a contest.
South Africa had enough attacking possession to win the match but were unable to cope with the stacked Japanese defence and had few ideas when it came to creating scoring chances.
USA entered their match with Korea knowing that a draw would be enough for them to finish third in the Pool but went one better and defeated Korea with a hard-working and at times fluent victory.
Korea were again dangerous on the counter attack but USA was able to keep numbers around the ball and limit their opponent's chances in and around their scoring zone.
After a runners-up finish at the qualifier in Rome in April, Korea were expected to challenge the Pool's top two seeds for a semi final place but ended an inconsistent preliminary round by being physically outmatched by the desire of USA.
The early matches on the main pitches were lacklustre affairs with the Netherlands and Germany playing out a scoreless draw and China edging India by a single goal. The results had no bearing on the tournament except to officially confirm the Dutch as the top team in Pool A.
To wrap up the round robin phase, Australia scored two first half goals to defeat Argentina and ensure they finish on top of Pool B.
Tomorrow (Thursday) is the tournament's only rest day, with teams enjoying a chance to relax and prepare for a full card of classification matches on Friday.
In the first semi final, the Netherlands meet Argentina in a rematch of the 2002 final, while the second will be contested between Australia and Spain.
USA will play Germany in the first 5-8 classification match, while England face Japan.
In the playoffs for the bottom four positions, China meet South Africa in one match while Korea and India clash in the other.
