The Netherlands women and England’s men signed off the Pool Stage of the FIH Hockey World Cup with emphatic victories on Wednesday, as two of the four Pools in both the men’s and women’s tournaments were decided.
Under the new tournament format, the top two teams in each pool progress to the Second Stage and remain in the hunt for the title, while the bottom two teams enter the Classification Stage for the lower placings.
Australia kept their tournament hopes alive with a last-gasp 4-4 draw against Chile following a pulsating final quarter. After a tightly contested first half, Courtney Schonell gave Australia the lead just 11 seconds before the break, but Chile levelled through Laura Müller early in the third quarter. Abigail Wilson then restored Australia’s advantage from a penalty stroke, but some ill-discipline saw the Hockeyroos reduced to nine players. Chile pulled off their goalkeeper to give themselves an even greater numerical advantage, and it paid off when Manuela Urroz struck to make it 2-2 in the 47th minute. Their keeper then returned, but Claire Colwill put Australia back in front from a penalty corner five minutes later, only for Chile to come back for a third time, with Florencia Barrios equalising with her first senior international goal. Fernanda Villagran’s penalty stroke in the 55th minute put Chile ahead for the first time in the match, but with just 31 seconds remaining, Mariah Williams reacted quickest to a loose ball in front of goal to snatch a dramatic 4-4 draw.
A relieved Player of the Match, Mariah Williams, said afterwards: “Such an intense game… I think we have a bit to learn from that game. We need to… stick to our processes and make sure that we play our game and our way of playing. And we let that slip in that game, but we need to go back, have a look at the review, and see what we can fix.”
Later in the day, four goals from Yibbi Jansen guided the ruthless Netherlands side to a massive 9-0 victory over Japan’s women. Akio Tanaka put up a brave performance in goal for Japan and made some excellent saves. But the defending champions were prolific, with Marijn Veen and Felice Albers scoring two each and Frederique Matla also adding her name to the scoresheet. They kept the home crowd happy, taking a 5-0 lead by half-time and adding four more goals in the second half to wrap up the win and continue their unbeaten march through to the next round on top of Pool A. The result also saw Australia safely through in second spot.
In other women’s action, Argentina were made to work hard for a 2-0 victory over Scotland to ultimately finish top of Pool B after other results later in the day. Scotland started brightly, but María Granatto made the most of Argentina’s first opportunity, opening the scoring from a penalty corner in the 11th minute. Las Leonas were far more dominant in the second quarter without adding to their lead before Lara Casas finally doubled the advantage in the 41st minute, scrambling home from close range to seal the 2-0 win.
Germany secured second place in Pool B with a 3-1 win over the USA’s women, earning the vital points needed to finish above the Americans. Jette Fleschütz broke the deadlock from a penalty stroke in the 20th minute, before Lisa Nolte added the finishing touch to double the lead early in the second half. Ashley Sessa produced a spectacular solo effort to pull one back for the USA, but Fleschütz restored Germany’s two-goal advantage from another penalty stroke four minutes later, wrapping up the 3-1 win.
Meanwhile in the men's tournament, the showdown between arch-rivals India and Pakistan lived up to all expectations, with India claiming a thrilling 5-3 victory to secure second spot in Pool D. Harmanpreet Singh opened the scoring from a penalty corner before Abhishek doubled India’s lead, with Harmanpreet then adding his second to make it 3-0. Pakistan managed to pull one back, but Abhishek scored his second moments later to restore India’s three-goal lead at 4-1. Pakistan responded again with a rocketed Sufyan Khan drag flick to make it 4-2, but Hardik Singh’s penalty stroke early in the second half put India 5-2 up. Hannan Shahid scored his second in the final quarter, but India held on for the win.
Clinical England defeated Wales 8-2 in the highest-scoring match of the tournament so far to top Pool D. Sam Ward gave England the perfect start after just two minutes, before Will Calnan struck twice in the space of seven minutes to make it 3-0. Tom Sorsby added a fourth in the 22nd minute, with Zach Wallace making it 5-0 in the third quarter. England then ran rampant in the final period, scoring three times between the 48th and 54th minutes. It could have been far worse for Wales, had their goalkeeper, Toby Reynolds-Cotterill, not made numerous outstanding saves. To their credit, they kept fighting to the end, and Gareth Furlong scored twice in the final three minutes to add some respectability to the scoreline.
Player of the Match, Tom Sorsby said afterwards: “We got some real good outcomes… You can obviously feel like we left some goals out there, but super happy with scoring eight goals.”
Defending champions Germany seemed in complete control before France came back at the death to salvage a 1-1 draw. Justus Weigand put Germany ahead in the 42nd minute, after Thies Prinz’s strike from just outside the circle found him right in front of goal for the tap-in. France pulled their goalkeeper in search of an equaliser in the final minutes of the match and, with Germany down to 10 men, the move paid off. With just 39 seconds remaining, Louis Haertelmeyer finally breached the resolute German defence with an upright reverse-stick shot to secure the draw in sensational style.
In the final match of the night, four goals from Tom Boon guided world number one Belgium to a 5-3 victory over Malaysia. Thibeau Stockbroekx also scored for the home side. But the Malaysians produced an impressive performance against the former world champions, keeping the Belgians under pressure throughout. Among their goalscorers was Aiman Rozemi, who was celebrating his 200th cap for Malaysia. Had it not been for a missed penalty stroke in the dying minutes of the match, the outcome could have been very different. But the Belgians held on for the win, which confirmed their second-place finish in Pool B behind Germany.
19 August 2026 Results
Women
Result: Match 17 (W)
Chile 4 - 4 Australia (Pool A)
Player of the match: Mariah Williams (AUS)
Umpires: Amber Church (NZL), Yoon Seon Kim (KOR), Annelize Rostron (RSA-video)
Result: Match 18 (W)
Argentina 2 - 0 Scotland (Pool B)
Player of the match: Victoria Miranda (ARG)
Umpires: Victoria Pazos (PAR), Kristy Robertson (AUS), Xiaoying Liu (CHN-video)
Result: Match 19 (W)
USA 1 - 3 Germany (Pool B)
Player of the match: Jette Fleschütz (GER)
Umpires: Hannah Harrison (ENG), Sarah Wilson (SCO), Tyler Klenk (CAN-video)
Result: Match 20 (W)
Netherlands 9 - 0 Japan (Pool A)
Player of the match: Luna Fokke (NED)
Umpires: Irene Presenqui (ARG), Magali Sergeant (BEL), Alison Keogh (IRE-video)
Men
Result: Match 17 (M)
England 8 - 2 Wales (Pool D)
Player of the match: Tom Sorsby (ENG)
Umpires: Zeke Newman (AUS), Steve Rogers (AUS), Darren Hubach (RSA-video)
Result: Match 18 (M)
Pakistan 3 - 5 India (Pool D)
Player of the match: Abhishek (IND)
Umpires: Sean Rapaport (RSA), Jonas van’t Hek (NED), Ben Goentgen GER-video)
Result: Match 19 (M)
France 1 - 1 Germany (Pool B)
Player of the match: Michel Struthoff (GER)
Umpires: Gareth Greenfield (NZL), Hong-Zhen Lim (SGP), Wanri Venter (RSA-video)
Result: Match 20 (M)
Belgium 5 - 3 Malaysia (Pool B)
Player of the match: Tom Boon (BEL)
Umpires: Michiel Otten (NED), Hyosik You (KOR), David Tomlinson (NZL-video)
