Belgium to face Spain in quarter Finals after 2-2 Great Britain Draw

The last group game of the Red Lions ended in a draw (2-2) against Great Britain. A meeting that looks like a “wake-up call” for the Belgian hockey team which, on Sunday, will challenge Spain in the quarter-finals of the Olympic tournament.

The Red Lions had a complicated game Sunday night at Oi Hockey Stadium in Tokyo, which ended in a draw: 2-2. But first a match during which they quickly had to do without the services of Alexander Hendrickx, victim of a stick stroke in the face. Before the meeting ended, however, we saw the defender find his friends in the stands, his forehead barred by a bandage suggesting the installation of a few stitches. The medical staff then said that the “chief sleeper” of the team had not suffered a concussion.

Complicated like at the Euro

Victim of a cramp, Victor Wegnez had also left the field prematurely, leaving the Red Lions at 14 to face a British team which, during the recent Amsterdam Euro, had already complicated their lives by beating them in a preliminary match. (1-2). Six days later, however, the Red Lions had restored the balance by conquering bronze at the expense of the English.

Spain in quarter

Nevertheless, the Red Lions delivered a less attractive performance than the previous ones. They no longer united as we had seen them do at the start of the tournament, against the Netherlands and then Germany in particular. It lacked a bit of everything; in defense in particular, so solid until then. In short, a meeting that looks like a “wake-up call” which will do good, while shortly before kick-off, the Red Lions learned that they would have to face Spain on Sunday, in the quarter-finals of Olympic tournament. An opponent within their reach, provided of course that nothing is taken lightly. “The tournament starts in the quarterfinals,” Shane McLeod kept repeating. And the quarter, it is Sunday that it will be necessary to take it.