Germany kept alive their quest for the fifth Olympic gold medal with a hard-fought win against Argentina, who twice fought back before Germany’s Justus Weigand scored a late winner to break the hearts of Los Leones at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
The result completed the line-up for the semi-finals, with Germany set to meet eight times Olympic gold medallists India and the Netherlands facing Spain in the final four on Tuesday 6 August. The timings of the semi-finals can be found below.
Men’s Semi-finals – Tuesday 6 August 2024 (all times CEST)
14:00 Netherlands vs Spain
19:00 Germany vs India
The final match of a dramatic day of quarter-final action was another contest where the form book was thrown completely out of the window. Pool A winners Germany were given a huge test by an Argentina side that, despite finishing fourth in Pool B, have played superbly throughout the Paris 2024 Olympic hockey competition.
Die Honamas opened the scoring through Teo Hinrichs in the ninth minute, with Argentina levelling just two minutes later when Maico Casella rattled home a ferocious, low penalty corner.
The headline everyone was waiting for was written in the 24th minute, with Germany’s Gonzalo Peillat netting a penalty corner against the country he fired to Olympic gold at Rio 2016.
Following a scoreless third quarter, veteran Leones forward Agustin Mazilli restored parity with a clore range deflection 12 minutes from time. However, it was to be Germany’s day, with Justus Weigand tapping into an unguarded net after a surging run and pass from Niklas Wellen.
“I think it was a classic game against Argentina”, said Germany attacking star Christopher Rúhr after the match. “You’ve got to work hard for what you get. And I think we played a very, very mature kind of kind of game. Had our chances, took our chances, defended quite well. But obviously Argentina are very good defenders as well. Every duel is hard.
“You got to be there, you’ve got to show up”, continued Rühr, who has scored four times for his country here at Paris 2024. “We know about their quality, not just the defenders. They have quality up front as well, to score some corners. We knew before the game that was going to be a close one. You saw the other (quarter-final) games, every game was close. It’s the Olympic quarterfinals, so what do you expect?”
Looking ahead to Germany’s semi-final against India on Tuesday, Rühr said: “India is going to be hell of a game. I mean, they got the red card and worked their way through to the shootout, which is extraordinary. And yeah, we’ve got to be there. And if we were there, we’re going to win, but we got to show up.”
The hockey competitions at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 take place from Saturday 27 July to Friday 9 August. Both the men’s and women’s competitions feature 12 teams, split into two pools of six ahead of quarter-finals, semi-finals and medal matches. For more information about the hockey competitions at Paris 2024, visit Olympics.Hockey.
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