It was quarter-finals day at the Investec Women’s World
League in London yesterday, where the teams that finished top of their pools
had to beat the team that finished bottom of the other pool to progress through
to the Saturday’s semi-finals. In the case
of England and China, both of whom finished second in their pools, their route
to the semi finals was to play the side that came third. In England’s case, their opponents were
surprisingly Italy who, despite being ranked 17th in the world, had
finished third in Pool A.
For England it was not their finest hour. On what was a cold and damp evening, it was a
cold and damp performance. The match had
started encouragingly, with a spectacular Alex Danson goal opening the scoring
after only three minutes. A response
from a penalty corner only minutes later, fired home by Macarena Ronsisvalli,
appeared like only a blip in the proceedings, but it seemed like an age before
England could retake the lead, courtesy of Hannah MacLeod.
A third England goal, a second from Danson, seemed to put
England well in the driving seat by the time the match entered the second half,
but at that point the home side seemed to stall and lose commitment. The two goal advantage was lost 20 minutes
into the second half when a penalty corner strike hit a foot, and Italy was
awarded a stroke, which was buried by Augustina Di Bernardo.
As the rain picked up, English heads seemed to go down, and
there was a real threat that the match could end in a draw (and a shoot out) or
worse. But England clung on to record a 3-1 victory.
England will have to pick their game up if they stand any
chance against their opponents on Saturday.
Argentina beat South Africa in their quarter final match 3-1 and will
meet England at 5:30 pm.
In the other quarter final matches, China booked their place
in the semi finals by beating Spain 3-0. They will meet Australia, who saw off
the USA 4-1.
Picture from all of yesterday’s matches can be found on our
sister web site at www.HockeyImages.co.uk.
The second venue of the Men's World League Semi Finals starts in Johor, Malaysia, tomorrow (Saturday) with England playing South Africa in the final match of the day.
