Asia Cup winner Korea stunned former Olympic champion Argentina 3-2 in penalty shootout after being leveled 5-5 in regular time while two- time champion Germany trounced France 5-1 to complete the quarter final line up of the Hockey world Cup here this evening.
In the cross over matches for the last two quarter final berths, Korea staged a stunning come from behind win over Argentina to keep the Asian hopes alive while Germany faced no such resistance from France. In the quarter finals on Tuesday, Australia will face Spain while the defending champion will take on New Zealand.
In the other two quarter finals to be played on Wednesday, three-time champion the Netherlands will clash with Korea.
Korea –Argentina clash turned out to be an edge of the seat affair with the Asian team putting up a determined show and despite being down 3-5 till the 46th minute, staged a come from behind win as they scored two goals in a space of six minutes to draw parity.
Korea never allowed Argentina to dominate the game even when the Latin Americans led 5-3 and this never say die approach held the Asia cup winners to take the match to a penalty shootout in which they emerged winner.
In the regular period for Korea goal scorers were Jeong Junwoo (three), Kim Sunghyun, Lee Nam Yong (one each) while Maico Casella (one) Nicolas Keenan, Nicolas della Torre (two each) scored for Argentina.
In the penalty shootout, Lee Jungjun, Ji Woo Cheon, Jung Manjae converted for Korea, while Nicolas Keenan, Maico Casella converted for the losers.
Earlier for Germany who led 3-0 at half time, the goal scorers were Marco Miltkau, Niklas Wellen, Tom Grambusch, Mortiz Trompertz, Gonzalo Peillat (one each). Francois Goyet reduced the margin for France.
Playing a fast game, Germany forced two penalty corners as the match opened and then surged ahead in the 14th minute through Marco Miltkau, who intercepted a cross near the circle and moved into it and swept the ball home (1-0).
The former champions increased the pressure and four minutes later made it 2-0 with Niklas Wellen scoring a fine goal leaving the defenders and the goalkeeper clueless.
There was no stopping rampaging Germans as they further increased the lead in the 23-minute through Tom Grambusch.
Four minutes into the second session, the winners further consolidated their lead with Mortiz Trompertz converting the fourth penalty corner (4-0).
The Germans after taking a big lead slackened their grip over the game and the French seized the opportunity and launched a furious counter attack which rattled the rival defenders.
Suddenly the French were all over the German defence which conceded four penalty corners in a row and Francois Goyet converted the last one to reduce the margin.(1-4).
The French strikers again created an opening which earned them two successive penalty corners but this time German defenders foiled all the attempts.
A minute before the final hooter Germany earned their eighth penalty corner and Gonzalo Peillat made no mistake in converting it to complete the tally (5-1).