Paris Olympics: The quarterfinal lineup for the men's hockey was confirmed late on Friday night when the Pool matches concluded. All the 12 teams played their final Pool games on Friday as the knockout stage took its complete shape.
Tokyo 2020 bronze winners India, who stunned Australia in their fifth Pool B match, have qualified in second place from Pool B, while Belgium are the table-toppers of the Pool. The mighty Aussies finished third, ahead of the last qualifying team- Argentina in fourth in the Pool B.
As per the format, the table-toppers from Pool B will face the bottom-placed team in Pool A, the second-placed Pool B team will face the third-ranked Pool A side, while the third-placed Pool B team will lock horns against the second-best from the other Pool. The bottom-placed Pool B team will face the winners of Pool A.
From the Pool A - Germany (1st), Netherlands (2nd), Great Britain (3rd) and Spain (4th) have qualified. The quarterfinal face-offs are coincidentally a rematch of all the teams from the Tokyo 2020. All the quarterfinals are scheduled to take place on August 4.
India will be up against Germany once again in the first quarterfinal at 1:30 PM IST, while Belgium will face Spain in the next one at 4 PM IST, followed by the two other QFs - Netherlands vs Australia at 9 PM IST and Germany and Argentina at 11:30 PM IST.
Here is the complete quarterfinal line-up:
The Indian men's team defeated Australia in their final Pool B match 3-2. This was India's first-ever win over the Aussies at the Olympics in the last 52 years. The win all but ensured India's second-place finish and it was confirmed after Argentina's 3-3 tie against Belgium.
In the other Pool, Germany defeated Great Britain 2-1, the Netherlands defeated Spain 5-3 and South Africa beat France 2-1 to end the Pool.
