The FIH Hockey Men\u2019s Junior World Cup Tamil Nadu 2025 moved towards the business end of the pool stage after Day 3 of the tournament witnessed some intense battles besides a flurry of goals in Chennai and Madurai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spain emerged on top in an all-European contest against Belgium, Japan stayed alive in the quarter-finals race by going past Asian rivals China. While the tournament also witnessed its first draw, the day ended with an entertaining battle that saw France stunning Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The day saw possibly the most fiercely-contested 45 minutes of the pool stage so far when Australia and 2023 runners-up France fought tooth and nail for supremacy in Pool F. But it was the French who eventually found an extra gear to end up on the right side of the result \u2013 ultimately winning with an overwhelming 8-3 scoreline after it looked anybody\u2019s game at 3-3 after three quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While France\u2019s second consecutive win put them well on their way to the quarter-finals, the Aussies are left with a tricky last pool game against Korea on Tuesday. Six pool toppers and two best second-placed teams go through to the last-eight stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Aussies led 3-1 at one stage with goals from Matthew Hawthorne, Patrick Andrew and Ian Grobbelaar after France scored the game\u2019s first goal through Victor Saint-Martin in the 9th<\/sup>minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it was all France from that moment on as far as goal-scoring is concerned, with James Liddiard making it 2-3 and Tom Gaillard levelling it at 3-3 heading into the final 15 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The game turned completely on its head in the final quarter as France cut through Australia’s defence to score five unanswered goals. Gaillard scored his second goal and Hugo Dolou too struck twice, while Gabriel Piole, Malo Martinache were the others to get on the scoresheet in the last quarter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Australia’s strategy of taking their keeper off to chase the equaliser cost them heavily as they go into the final day of pool play with a -3 goal difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think it was a tough match in each department of the game. We defended very hard and took our chances in attack against a very tough opponent like Australia,\u201d said France\u2019s Arthur Plauche after the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Egypt vs Namibia (Full-Time Score: 2-4)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n After a cagey and goalless first quarter, Namibia got their act together to beat Egypt 4-2 in their second game of Pool D on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The win kept Namibia mathematically alive in the tournament, but Egypt\u2019s second defeat ended their chances of a place in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Namibia shifted gears towards the middle of the second quarter to find two goals courtesy Liam Bruys and James de Jager; but Egypt cut that lead before half-time with a goal from Abdelrahman Kasem. Two minutes into the third quarter, Namibia increased their lead to 3-1 when Josh van der Merwe beat the Egyptian post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A goal from Mohab Hegab brought Egypt back in the contest with seven minutes left on the clock, but the game was put to bed in the last few seconds when Namibia\u2019s John-Paul Britz converted a penalty corner to finish the game 4-2 in favour of his team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt feels surreal; I can\u2019t just put it in words. The boys put in a massive effort. Obviously it was very difficult (to come back from a defeat). Belgium is a very good side and we ended up conceding quite a few goals. We just thought this is the game we can target in our pool and we’re happy we did that (won),\u201d said Namibia captain, Britz. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe take it game by game. So,we\u2019ll recover on the rest day, see what we learnt from this game and try our best against Spain. Anything can happen in hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Belgium vs Spain (Full-Time Score: 0-2)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Last edition\u2019s bronze medallists Spain beat fellow Europeans Belgium 2-0 to register their second victory and put a foot in the quarters \u2013 leaving the Belgians to play a win-at-all-cost game against Egypt in their last Pool D fixture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spain, who are yet to concede a goal in the tournament, broke the deadlock in the 20th<\/sup>minute of the evenly-contested match when Juan Prado put the finishing touches to an incisive move. Soon after half-time, a 32nd<\/sup>-minute penalty corner saw Bruno Avila increasing Spain\u2019s lead to 2-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After two matches each in Pool D, unbeaten Spain are on top, while Belgium and Namibia both are at three points from a win and a loss each. Egypt have bowed out of the race to quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think it was our first final in the championship and this match was very important for us because we are rivals,\u201d said Spain captain, Pablo Roman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe were really, really serious in defence as we thought that was the key to win this match. We defended really well and I am very proud of the team and our defence. We ran a lot and now we have to rest before meeting Namibia in the last game and (hopefully) top the group. I think we have to stay tight in defence; and when we attack, we fly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Japan vs China (Full-Time Score: 3-2)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Japan revived their campaign on Day 3 after losing their opening game of the tournament and defeated Asian rivals China 3-2 in a tight Pool C match at Chennai\u2019s Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium. China, however, lost their second game on the trot, which ended their hopes of reaching the last-eight stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China were the first to strike in the 11th<\/sup>minute of the match when Dongjun Ning converted a penalty corner. But Japan regrouped after the quarter-break to first equalise through Shun Hara and then take a 2-1 lead off Shu Ono\u2019s stick, with both the goals coming off penalty corners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The third quarter saw both the teams putting up a staunch defence, and it wasn\u2019t until the 50th<\/sup>minute that Japan added a cushion to make it 3-1, thanks to Kazuki Terasaka\u2019s field goal. China gave themselves a chance to come back when Jialiang Zhang converted a penalty stroke three minutes before the final hooter, but the Japanese held firm in the dying minutes of the game to hold on for a win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe lost yesterday\u2019s game, but we were not nervous and had confidence for today\u2019s game. We did some hard work, which helped us in this match,\u201dsaid Japan\u2019s Shogo Sasaki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n England vs Austria (Full-Time Score: 13-0)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n England fired on all cylinders in their must-win second game of Pool E to hammer Austria 13-0, with \u2018Player of the Match\u2019 Kaden Draysey and Henry Markham scoring hat-tricks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n England, who had lost to Netherlands 3-5 in their first match, had to not just win but also ensure a healthy margin of victory to stay in contention for a top-place finish in the pool and a direct qualification to the quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Austrians surprised England with their defence in a barren first quarter, but the English men returned from the short break to score five goals in the next 15 minutes to lead 5-0 at half-time. Four goals each in the last two quarters took England\u2019s tally into double figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides Draysey\u2019s four goals and three by Markham, George Fletcher finished with a brace while Ollly Bennett, Alex Chihota, Michael Royden and captain Max Anderson scored once each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith the tournament\u2019s format, we were obviously very disappointed with the loss against Holland yesterday. So today we knew that we have to come out and score plenty of goals if we want to have the opportunity to go to Chennai for the quarterfinals,\u201d said England skipper Anderson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo, we just wanted to stick to our game plan and go for the goals. Credit to the lads, they did exactly that. If we stay disciplined in our defence, we can go a long way in this tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Zealand vs Argentina (Full-Time Score: 3-3)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The tournament witnessed its first drawn match on Day 3 when New Zealand held two-time winners Argentina to 3-3 in Chennai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pool C game saw three goals in the first 11 minutes, with Argentina taking a 2-1 lead through Mateo Torrigiani and Bruno Correa, while Jonty Elmes scored for the Black Sticks. The second quarter remained devoid of any goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elmes led New Zealand\u2019s rally after the half-time break, completing his second consecutive hat-trick of the tournament to put his team ahead 3-2. However, Correa\u2019s second goalin the 40th<\/sup>minute made things even at 3-3<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last 20 minutes of the match didn\u2019t produce any goals and the deadlock stayed till the final hooter, which leaves both the teams at four points from two matches with a win and a draw each, while Japan too remain in contention for quarters with three points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s a bit of a relief (to draw the game) because we started on a shaky note, but we found our footing. I feel we could have won that game but all to play for tomorrow(against Japan),\u201d said New Zealand\u2019s Finlay Neale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t our best match but we now have to prepare for the game against China and have to be at our best. We need to score a lot of goals and win, but we will prepare for both offence and defence,\u201d said Argentina\u2019s Mateo Serrano, highlighting the importance of goal-difference after the draw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Malaysia vs Netherlands (Full-Time Score: 0-6)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Netherlands put themselves at the door of quarterfinals with a comprehensive 6-0 win over Malaysia, which puts the European giants at top of Pool E with six points from two victories and a match against Austria left to play. The Dutch side began the tournament with a win over England, who remain in the fray for the quarters alongside Malaysia at three points each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two field goals by skipper Casper van der Veen and a brace of penalty-corner strikes by Joppe Wolbert led the Dutch win, while Thies Bakker and Tjeerd Boermans scored a goal each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am happy that we are growing in certain aspects of the game. Our defensive discipline was a lot better than yesterday, I think\u2026But I felt in the first half we were on the ball a little bit more, dominating; but in the second half we lost that a little bit. The tempo slowed down. All in all, two very good wins,\u201d said Netherlands\u2019 coach, Jesse Mahieu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think because of the format, we have seen a lot of the teams trying to find control because if you lose or drop points somewhere, then you can be out. So we haven\u2019t seen the most offensive hockey yet, but I think it will come (later) in the tournament,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Korea vs Bangladesh<\/strong>(Full-Time Score: 3-3)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Amirul Islam\u2019s second hat-trick of the tournament engineered Bangladesh\u2019s comeback from a three-goal deficit to hold Korea to a 3-3 draw in the Pool F fixture, but it puts both the teams on the brink of elimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Korea, who had lost to France in their first game, were looking good to secure full points after taking a 2-0 lead in the first quarter with goals from Minhyeok Lee and Seunghan Son. The Korean lead grew to 3-0 in the 17th<\/sup>minute when Lee struck again and took his team to half-time comfortably ahead. Words from coach Siegfried Aikman in the break did the trick as Bangladesh found their mojo by creating three penalty corners and Amirul didn\u2019t disappoint his teammates by converting those in the 36th<\/sup>, 46th<\/sup>and 56th<\/sup>minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last four minutes saw edge-of-the-seat stuff, with both the teams jostling to score the winning goal but it wasn\u2019t to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think we were close to victory, leading 3-0\u2026Tomorrow will be a hard game now (against Australia),\u201d said Korea\u2019s Seunghan Son. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Bangladesh coach Aikman was all praise for his team\u2019s effort. \u201cWe know what we can do as long as we are good in our structure and we fight. In our practice matches, we did it (came back) many times\u2026In the second half we changed our structure a little bit so that we could create more pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The FIH Hockey Men\u2019s Junior World Cup Tamil Nadu 2025 moved towards the business end of the pool<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5405,"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-6630","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\/2025\/10\/junior-hockey.jpg",894,671,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/junior-hockey-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/junior-hockey-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/junior-hockey-768x576.jpg",640,480,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/junior-hockey.jpg",640,480,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/junior-hockey.jpg",894,671,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/junior-hockey.jpg",894,671,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/junior-hockey-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/junior-hockey-590x410.jpg",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\/2025\/10\/junior-hockey.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6630","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=6630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6631,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6630\/revisions\/6631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}