Pakistan To Play Belgium In Crossover On Tuesday

Pakistan (3rd in pool D) will play Belgium (2nd in pool C) on Tuesday in the crossover for a quarter final place of the ongoing Hockey World Cup in India.

ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Dec, 2018 ) :Pakistan (3rd in pool D) will play Belgium (2nd in pool C) on Tuesday in the crossover for a quarter final place of the ongoing Hockey World Cup in India.

Green-Shirts made it in the crossovers with only one point from the three pool games, edging out Malaysia on goal difference.

Belgium won two and drew one with India, who topped the pool because of the better goal difference, said a press release issued here.

Surprisingly, Pakistan and Belgium have earlier played against each other just twice in the World Cup with Pakistan winning 2-0 in 1973 and 3-2 in 2002.

Currently ranked three in the world, till only a few years back, Belgium were a non-entity in the international hockey circuit and quite a few times even failed to qualify for the World Cup and the Olympics.

Their mercurial rise in a very short time is amazing.

Belgium's best positions at the top international title events have arrived in recent times. Olympics: 2nd in 2016, World Cup: 5th in 2014, Euro Hockey Nations Championships: 2nd in 2013 & 2017, Junior World Cup: 2nd in 2016.

Pakistan started well, going down 0-1 to Germany. Next, they had a hard fought 1-1 draw with Malaysia. n the last pool game, they were outplayed by the Dutch in a 1-5 defeat. In the second half, most of the time, Pakistan appeared at a loss for ideas. All this means, Pakistan will have to play out of their skin to make it to the quarter finals; needing to overcome an in-form side ranked 10 places above them.