England target bronze after semi-final defeat

England took on the Netherlands in Saturday's second semi-final looking for a victory that would set up a gold-medal clash with Argentina tomorrow at the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre.

However goals from Mirco Pruijser and Bjorn Kellerman put world number four outfit the Netherlands in the driving seat with the hosts unable to recover.

It proved to be a tight contest with both teams largely cancelling each other out before keeper George Pinner was required to produce a fine double save shortly before the first break.

The Dutch began to take control of the contest with Pinner called into action on several occasions before he was finally beaten in the third quarter when Pruijser's deflection found the backboard.

They extended their lead in the final quarter when Kellerman hammered his shot past Pinner and England failed to trouble the Dutch defence after that.

They will now play Malaysia in Sunday's bronze-medal match but with a place at December's World League Final in India, Crutchley knows his side need to respond.

"Without a doubt, we were beaten by the better team," he said. "They played really well and upped their game from their previous performances.

"It was not enough from us throughout to warrant the win.

"We could have played better with the ball in particular. We've had a lot of space in some of these games where we've looked good going forward but the Dutch defended really well.

"We will look back on it with a bit of regret but it's a big learning experience for some of these guys.

"It's a big opportunity tomorrow for us, if we can win that then we can qualify for the Hockey World League Final and that's what we want."

Later in the day, Scotland were unable to take anything from their third match of the Women's World League Semi Finals in Brussels as they lost 2-1 to Italy.

The Italians found themselves two goals to the good in the first half after goals from Agata Wybieralska and Jasbeer Singh.

Scotland were much improved in the second half with Kate Holmes pulling a goal back but they were unable to find the leveller.

They can still however qualify for the quarter finals of the tournament in tomorrow's match against Korea.

Scotland women's Head Coach Gordon Shepherd said: "We're disappointed to lose the match, we played really well and from the second quarter onwards we were the better team, but we were sloppy in the first quarter and ultimately it cost us in the end. We had enough chances but it just didn't happen for us.

"It's a quick turnaround for the next match. We're feeling confident and now we'll focus on winning the game against Korea. It would have been nice to qualify for the next round today, but we're going to go for it against Korea."

Sportsbeat 2017