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28 March 2024

Pakistan edges South Africa in hockey

Published
By AP

Captain Sohail Abbas and Waseem Ahmad scored late goals to give Pakistan a 5-4 comeback win over South Africa in the Olympic men's field hockey tournament on Sunday.

The win in a match which featured four lead changes moved Pakistan into third place in its group, level with Australia and Britain, who play each other later Sunday.

In another early match, Belgium and New Zealand drew 1-1, meaning neither team will advance to the knockout round.

South Africa opened the scoring in the second minute with a field goal by Thornton McDade and Pakistan's Abdul Hasseem Khan equalized in the 20th minute.

Justin Reid-Ross put the South Africans back in front but Khan put Pakistan ahead again with a goal in the 25th minute.

Reid-Ross' second goal and another by Wade Paton gave South Africa a one-goal lead before Pakistan's late scoring surge.

"It was a great match and we had a plan that if we could win that match, we would have a chance to reach the semis," Khan said. "We played our best and at the beginning there was quite a lot of pressure but at the end we played well."

Pakistan has to beat No. 1-ranked Australia on Tuesday to advance to the semifinals.

Belgium took the lead over New Zealand with a 48th-minute field goal by Tom Boon, but Nicholas Wilson equalized six minutes later.

Belgium was the stronger side, with 18 chances at goal compared to New Zealand's eight.

"It's a little bit frustrating for us, we wanted to come and win," said Belgium coach Colin Batch. "It's become a bit of a theme for us that we play well for periods of the game but don't manage to finish."

In other matches Sunday, reigning Olympic champions Germany plays the Netherlands, India takes on South Korea and Argentina plays Spain.