England and India secured qualification for the women\u2019s Hockey World Cup Belgium and Netherlands after winning their respective semi-finals at the Hockey Women\u2019s World Cup Qualifiers at the GMC Balayogi Hockey Ground in Hyderabad, setting up a title clash between two unbeaten sides of the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
England defeated Scotland 2\u20130 in the first semi-final, while India edged past Italy 1\u20130 in a closely fought second semi-final to book their tickets to the global showpiece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Losing semi-finalists Scotland and Italy will now battle for the third place, which also assures World Cup qualification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two classification matches of the day saw Wales producing a spirited comeback to defeat Korea 2\u20131 and advance to the 5th\u20136th place playoff, while Uruguay registered an emphatic 3\u20130 victory over Austria to join them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
England 2\u20130 Scotland (1st Semi-final)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n England secured their place in the FIH Hockey World Cup 2026 by entering the final after they defeated neighbours Scotland 2-0 in the first semi-final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n England will definitely be happy with their fourth consecutive win, but not with the number of chances they missed. Their attacking intent showed up in the statistics, as they had 26 circle penetrations, but their success rate on penalty corners was zero in four set-pieces. Scotland, too, were not on target on penalty corners \u2013 not managing to score in six attempts..<\/p>\n\n\n\n After coming close to scoring several times in 24 minutes, the English team found the target in the next minute when Lottie Bingham provided the finishing touch to a circle entry. Four minutes later, in the 29th, Darcy Bourne gave England breathing space at 2-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Desperation crept into the Scottish game in the second half, with umpire Cookie Tan spotting yellow-card offences and punished Amy Costello (50rd minute) and Ellie Mackenzie (53rd) with five-minute suspensions, while England defence held tight to take the team to the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scotland will now have their eyes on 3rd-4th place playoff. Top three teams qualify directly from Hyderabad, to the World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think how we have come together as a team (is the biggest strength of this group),\u201d said \u2018Player of the Match\u2019 Sophie Hamilton after England\u2019s unbeaten run. \u201cIt\u2019s not just one person\u2019s performance, it\u2019s the whole team. That\u2019s what is really great and why we have got four wins out of four.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n India 1\u20130 Italy (2nd Semi-final)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n India punched their ticket to the World Cup with a 1-0 win over Italy in the second semi-final on Friday, setting up a title clash against England. Both the teams have remained unbeaten on their way to the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n India\u2019s 22 circle entries, nine penalty corners and eight shots on target resulted in just one goal, but it proved to be the differentiator in the end. The Indian backline played out of its skin to defend the thin lead against a resolute Italian team that threatened enough but had nothing to show for it in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The game\u2019s only and the all-important goal took 40 minutes to come, when Manisha Chauhan struck off a penalty corner to put India ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Italy came close to scoring the equaliser with a penalty corner in the dying minutes, but India\u2019s goalkeeper Bichu Devi was alert to the danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Italy\u2019s chances of qualifying for the World Cup now depend on a victory over Scotland in the 3rd-4th place playoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis award is for the team,\u201d said India\u2019s defender and \u2018Player of the Match\u2019 Sushila Chanu. \u201cWe played well as a team, in the defence as well. Italy too played well. We will now analyse our (game on) video and see in which areas we need to improve ahead of the final.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Korea 1 \u2013 2 Wales (5\/8)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Korea\u2019s finishing cost them dear as they lost to Wales 1-2 and will now play for the 7th-8th place. Wales, despite fewer circle penetrations, were better with their conversion rate and booked their place in the battle for the 5th place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Koreans entered the Welsh circle 20 times, but scored just one goal and created only two penalty corners. In comparison, Wales scored off a penalty corner and a penalty stroke that resulted from two of their six circle penetrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Skipper Beth Bingham was the star of Wales\u2019s comeback after Korea scored first with a field goal from Yeongeun Park in the 46th minute following three goal-less quarters that saw the Welsh defence standing tall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Wales upped the ante when they needed it the most, resulting in Bingham scoring the equaliser from a 49th-minute penalty corner and then finding the winning goal off a penalty stroke awarded in the 53rd minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Talking about the game, \u2018Player of the Match\u2019 Beth Bingham said, \u201cI\u2019m delighted with the team\u2019s effort and performance today against a higher-ranked team, especially in the heat. We were disappointed not to get anything out of the group stage. So, to bounce back and get a win against Korea was really important for us. We spoke about punching above our weight and we have done exactly that; I couldn\u2019t be prouder of the 20 players.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Uruguay 3\u20130 Austria (5\/8)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Uruguay got the better of Austria with a comprehensive 3-0 victory and will now feature in the 5th-6th place playoff against Wales on the tournament\u2019s concluding day, while the Austrians will take on Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Teresa Viana led the South American side with a brace after Manuela Vilar\u2019s penalty-corner goal in the fourth minute put them ahead early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The teams went into half-time at 2-0 after Uruguay extended their lead when Viana found the mark on a penalty corner. In all, Uruguay earned seven penalty corners compared to none for Austria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The barrage of attacks from Uruguay continued in the third quarter and produced their third goal in the 44th minute off Viana\u2019s stick. It remained 3-0 at the full-time hooter, with no goal-scoring action in the last quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Viana was named the \u2018Player of the Match\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHappy to win this match and bounce back after missing out on the semi-final. Now we aim to close out the tournament with another win tomorrow,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Korea 1 \u2013 2 Wales<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Player of the Match: Elizabeth Bingham (WAL)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Uruguay 3 \u2013 0 Austria<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Player of the Match: Teresa Viana (URU)<\/p>\n\n\n\n England 2 \u2013 0 Scotland<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Player of the Match: Sophie Hamilton (ENG)<\/p>\n\n\n\n India 1 \u2013 0 Italy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Player of the Match: Sushila Chanu (IND)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" England and India secured qualification for the women\u2019s Hockey World Cup Belgium and Netherlands after winning their respective<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[60],"class_list":["post-10544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-hockey"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/India-womens-hockey-1.webp",1000,563,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/India-womens-hockey-1-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/India-womens-hockey-1-300x169.webp",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/India-womens-hockey-1-768x432.webp",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/India-womens-hockey-1.webp",640,360,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/India-womens-hockey-1.webp",1000,563,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/India-womens-hockey-1.webp",1000,563,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/India-womens-hockey-1-825x563.webp",825,563,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/India-womens-hockey-1-590x410.webp",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/India-womens-hockey-1.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10546,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10544\/revisions\/10546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}