FIH Hockey Pro League: Argentina fall to Netherland's three-minute goal-fest

Within the regulation time, De Geus Jonas in the 30th minute, Van Heijningen Steijn in the 31st and Bijen Koenin in the 32nd minute were the goal scorers for the Netherlands. In contrast, Ferreiro Martin, in the 15th minute, was the sole goalscorer for Argentina.

Argentina took an early lead in the first quarter, but the Netherlands pulled a reversal by scoring three goals in three minutes. Ferreiro Martin opened the scoring for Argentina with a reverse shot past the Dutch goalkeeper Pirmin Blaak after receiving an excellent pass from Agustin Mazilli. Argentina started much better than the first leg of the match yesterday and looked more comfortable with their defence and control of the ball.

However, the Netherlands pulled off a remarkable comeback with renewed vigour and launched consecutive attacks at half-time. De Geus Jonas slotted the ball into the net from a penalty corner and equalized the score. This goal gave much-needed momentum to the Dutch side. Just one minute later, they gained a lead when Van Heijningen took a wide shot from the edge of the Argentine circle into the net past the shoulder of the Argentine goalkeeper Tomas Santiago. The home side further widened the lead with a chip shot past the Argentine keeper by Bijen Koeni. 

Both the sides failed to score any more goals, and the game ended with a 3-1 victory for the Netherlands.

Joep de Mol said, in a post-match interview, "The win was good, but the three points were more important. We played well but went 1-0 down. We picked it up in the second half. We attacked the circle far more and with more aggression in the second half.

Argentina ended their last match in the ongoing FIH Pro Hockey League season at the third spot. Any change in their ranking will now depend on the performance of other teams. In contrast, the Dutch squad moved to the fifth spot with six games left to play.