Pakistan Faces India In Classification Match Of World Hockey League

LAHORE, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jun, 2017 ) : Pakistan will face arch-rivals India in a classification match for the positions from fifth to eight of the world hockey league on Saturday at London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

The green shirts were earlier beaten 7-1 by India in the league pool. Pakistan exhibited dismal run in the league which is the qualifying round of the next year's World Hockey Cup, suffering from three back-to-back defeats in the league matches as Holland beat them 4-0 with Canada giving them a 6-0 thrashing, followed by loss to India.

Pakistan once the powerhouse of hockey, now a pale shadow of their glittering past notched up the only win of the World Hockey league by defeating little known Scotland 3-1. With such a dismal show, Pakistan got into the quarter finals of the league when Canada which needed a win against Scotland to make it to the quarter finals played a 1-1 draw.

However, in the quarter finals, Pakistan faced mighty Olympic and World champions, Argentina which beat the green shirts 3-1. In the other quarter finals, Malaysia beat India 3-2, Holland thrashed China 7-0, England beat Canada 4-2.

The number ninth and tenth position in the league has already been decided as in another classification match, South Korea beat Scotland 6-3. In another classification match (5th to 8th place) Canada will take on China.

In the first semi-final, Argentina will face off Malaysia on Saturday and England will lock horns with Netherlands in the other semi-final on the same day. Argentina, Malaysia, Holland and England being the semi-finalist teams of the league have qualified for the World Cup.