Belgium boosted their hopes of claiming a bronze medal at the Champions Trophy 2018, thanks to a 4-2 victory over Pakistan on Friday.
Belgium moved into fourth place with a result that could be good enough for a place in Sunday’s bronze medal match.
They will, however, need to wait until the results of the two remaining group games, which take place on Saturday. If Argentina manage to beat the defending champions Australia, they could replace the Belgians in the bronze medal match.
Both Pakistan and Belgium came into Friday’s contest occupying the bottom two positions in the pool and knew that a victory would keep alive hopes of a medal
Pakistan took a lead in the 11th minute through Aleem Bilal penalty corner conversion.
Thomas Briels, then equalised for the Red Lions, three minutes into the second half. Remarkably, Pakistan and Belgium traded blows to take the score to 2-2, with Aleem scoring off another penalty corner effort and Amaury Keusters tapping home seconds later to restore parity ahead of the final quarter.
Belgium dominated the final period of the game and scored twice, completing the 4-2 win.
On Thursday, 14-time champions Australia became the first team to secure a place in the final with a 3-1 victory over hosts Netherlands.
The mighty Kookaburras achieved the feat with a match to spare with Blake Govers scoring twice for the title holders.
The Netherlands can still reach Sunday’s showpiece final but will need to defeat in-form India, a team that currently sit second in the standings thanks in part to their 1-1 draw against Belgium.
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