The Netherlands humbled the most successful team in the FIH Men's Hockey World Cup history Pakistan 5-1 in the final pool match of the 2018 edition at the Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar, Odisha on Sunday.
And with that, the line-ups for the knock-outs including the crossover round have also been finalised.
In the blue-ribbon match of the tournament, between the two most successful teams Pakistan and the Netherlands, the fallen Asian giants needed to avoid a defeat by more than eight goals after another Asian team, Malaysia ended their pool engagement with a -9 goal difference earlier in the day.
Pakistan entered the field with an unrealistic chance of beating the three-time champions and world number four team. And as turned out, they received a thrashing from the Europeans.
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They pipped Malaysia to the third spot thanks to a better goal difference in Pool D, which is hailed as the group of death, the Pool D finished. Except for the Asian Games silver medallist Malaysia, the other teams in the pool are multiple World Cup winners.
Germany, after surviving a Malaysian scare in the day's first match, topped the pool to qualify directly for the quarter-finals, ahead of the Dutch.
Thierry Brinkman opened the scoring for the Europeans in the seventh minute, but Pakistan hit back with a ninth-minute goal with Muhammad Umar Bhutta converting from a penalty corner.
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Then, it became an one-way traffic. Valentin Verga (27th) and Bob de Voogd (37th) scored two field goals, before Jorrit Croon (47th) and Mink van der Weerden (59th) getting one each from PC conversions.
In the crossover, the Netherlands will face Pool C third-place team Canada, while Pakistan will take on Pool C runners-up Belgium. Both the matches are scheduled for on December 11 (Tuesday).
The winner of the Netherlands-Canda match will meet Pool C winners India, while the winner of Belgium-Pakistan match will meet Pool D winners Germany. Both the matches are scheduled for December 13 (Thursday).
