England enter quarters in Hockey Junior World Cup

England became the eighth and final team to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Hockey Junior World Cup following a comfortable 6-0 victory over Canada here on Tuesday.

Edward Horler scored a hat-trick for England, who confirmed a second place finish in Pool D which sets up a quarter-final meeting against defending Champions Germany, the winners of Pool C.

As well as the Germany versus England fixture, Pool A winners Australia face a huge clash with Pool B runners up the Netherlands, while Pool D winners India and Pool C's second placed Spain will also go head to head. Belgium taking on Argentina will be another fascinating encounter.

In the Pool D meeting between England and Canada, the former produced a dominant performance as Will Calnan and Horler both scored twice in the first half to take the score to 4-0.

Horler completed his hat-trick with his third penalty corner effort of the day in the 46th minute. A superb back-hand volley from Christopher Proctor in the 54th minute finished the match scoring.

The pool phase was ended by Australia, who made it three wins from three matches in Lucknow with a 5-0 triumph over Pool A opponents South Korea.

The Koreans managed to keep the Australians off the score-sheet for 25 minutes before Frazer Gerrard slammed home a penalty corner.

Blake Govers netted a quick-fire double just before half-time to take the score to 3-0.

Max Hendry and Kiran Arunasalam completed the scoring for an Australian team determined to land their first Junior Hockey World Cup title since 1997.

--IANS

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