Bhubaneswar, India: Belgium flattened Pakistan 5-0 yesterday to qualify for the quarter-final of the Hockey World Cup being held at the Kalinga Stadium here.
In another all-important cross-over match, three-time champions Netherlands registered similar 5-0 thrashing of lower-ranked Canada.
The Netherlands will now face India in the quarter-final tomorrow while Belgium will take on Germany.
The men in green made an early exit from the World Cup without registering a single win in the tournament.
Their only point came when they held on to a 1-1 draw against Malaysia. They were beaten by Germany and Netherlands.
Belgium, on the other hand, triumphed in their opening game to Canada, 5-1 against South Africa and were held 2-2 against India.
Pakistan and Belgium last played against each other twice in the World Cup, with Pakistan winning both the times, 2-0 in 1973 and 3-2 in 2002.
The first period saw Belgium scoring twice in the 10th and 13th minute. Alexander Hendrickx converted the penalty corner to give Belgium 1-0 lead.
Soon after, Thomas Briels added one more to put Belgium 2-0 up against Pakistan.
In the second period, Cedric Charlier added the third to push Pakistan on the back foot courtesy a field goal. The third quarter saw one more converted by Belgium as Sebastien Dockier netted in the 35th minute.
However, the Belgian show didn’t end there and Tom Boon’s penalty stroke conversion in the 53rd minute completed Pakistan’s humiliation in the Hockey World Cup.
The Dutchmen have been solid, apart from the 1-4 blip against Germany, and have thrashed every opponent they have faced so far.
The case remained the same as Thijs van Dam (40th and 58th) scored a brace with Lars Balk (16th), Robbert Kemperman (20th) and Thierry Brinkman (41st) helping the three-time winners enter the quarter-finals.
World No.11 Canada will return home empty handed as they failed to win even a single game in the tournament.
The Dutch were fluid, maintained their formation for almost the entire game and created as many as 38 circle entries in comparison to Canada’s six.
Though they failed to convert their four short corner chances, the world No.4 team didn’t really need any as their strikers were good enough to do the job at hand.
“We played a great game. We’ll take some rest and prepare for the next game against India. It’s good that we are entering the quarter-finals with a big win,” Dutch defender Jorrit Croon said. “Margin was not in our mind but we came entered the ground with an aim of playing our best hockey and score as many goals as we can.”