Thursday 22 January 2015 10:33, UK
A fantastic late strike from Iain Lewers secured a 1-1 draw with Belgium that ensured England finished top of their Champions Trophy group.
Lewers went from villain to hero as he struck in the final quarter to level the scores having earlier missed a penalty stroke after Amaury Keusters gave Belgium the lead.
England will now face the bottom side from Pool B in the quarter-finals in Bhubaneswar on Thursday.
It was a slow start from both sides, with neither playing the hockey that saw them secure impressive results coming into the contest.
Mark Gleghorne was shown a green card early on for England, who were sloppy in possession as Belgium began to take control.
With 10 minutes gone, Keusters found too much space in the England area before easily turning and firing a powerful reverse hit past George Pinner to give the Belgians the lead.
England came out from the interval with fresh purpose and took better care of the ball but it was Belgium who almost grabbed the next goal, with a deflected effort flying inches wide.
In the final minute, England won a penalty corner but Ashley Jackson’s attempt was saved onto the post. Sam Ward went for the rebound but was fouled for a penalty stroke.
Lewers beat the goalkeeper but not the crossbar as the goal frame came to Belgian’s rescue once more.
England largely dominated the third quarter, winning a number of penalty corners, but they were unable to conjure an equaliser as Belgium took their lead into the final 15 minutes.
Soon after the restart, England did equalise. Lewers broke into the Belgian area and crashed home a rasping reverse hit to make amends for his earlier penalty stroke miss.
