Germany & Netherlands qualify for dream women’s final
Netherlands shock hosts Germany and meet Austria in men’s final
After four days of intense action that has witnessed an incredible 84 matches, the men’s and women’s finalists at the FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup in Leipzig, Germany, are now known.
The women of Germany and the Netherlands will play in a dream final on Sunday (8th February 2015) thanks to victories in their respective semi-final matches.
Top-ranked Die Danas powered to a 7-0 semi-final victory over Austria, while the Netherlands, number 2 in the FIH Indoor World Rankings, emerged from a tough match against Czech Republic as 3-1 winners.
In the men’s competition, the Netherlands recorded one of the biggest shocks in Indoor Hockey World Cup history by defeating triple world champions and host nation Germany in the tournament semi-finals in a shootout after the match finished level at 4-4.
The sensational result means that it is now a certainty that a new name will be engraved on the men’s trophy, with Austria also making the title match after recording a 7-5 win over surprise package Iran, who produced a stunning performance to beat third ranked Russia in the quarter-finals earlier in the day.
The final day’s play will decide the top eight finishing positions in both the men’s and women’s competitions.
The running order for Sunday’s men’s and women’s medal matches, which will be live streamed on FIH’s You Tube channel, is as follows (local time – UTC/GMT +1):
10:00 – Austria v Czech Republic (Women’s Bronze Medal match)
11:30 – Germany v Iran (Men’s Bronze Medal match)
13:30 – Germany v Netherlands (Women’s Gold Medal match)
14:30 – Netherlands v Austria (Men’s Gold Medal match)