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#3 Argentina vs France (Pool A encounter)
The Chinese did give a massive scare to the English, but Jeroen Delmee's French side can confidently lay claim to causing the biggest upset of the competition.
Not only did the minnows upset Olympic champions Argentina, but, as a result of the incredible 5-3 win - Spain, who had promised much were shockingly eliminated from the World Cup as early as the pool stages.
Before the opening whistle, the French needed a high-scoring draw (with a margin of 5-5 or higher), or a win to upstage the Spanish Red Sticks and make it to an unlikely World Cup knockout.
The Spanish were well on their way to the crossovers with a comfortable two-goal lead against New Zealand, only to concede twice in the final quarter.
As a result of the shocking turn of events, the progress of Frederic Soyez's men hinged solely on the result of the Argentina-France match, but the Spanish would definitely have relied on the Olympic champions to prevail.
Hugo Genestet gave France an early lead which was soon doubled by Victor Charlet. The towering drag-flicker fired one past Vivaldi in the twenty-third minute and Aristide Coisne jolted the South Americans with a third from open play soon after.
Lucas Martinez pulled one back for his team but Gaspard Baumgarten scored with a fantastic diving effort just before the half-time hooter and Argentina went into the long breather trailing 1-4.
Gonzalo Peillat scored twice in the third quarter which would have served to raise the spirits of the Spaniards but Francois Goyet sealed the deal for the French six minutes from time.
Argentina had already assured themselves of a place in the quarterfinals even before the match began - so did that have an impact on the final result?
Sportskeeda checked with Siegfried Aikman who stressed that the Argentinians were well and truly outclassed by a side which exposed their shortcomings.
"I do not think Argentina played badly - only, they had an opponent who played to win and was attacking and aggressive, with determination and passion. Argentina has some problems with teams who are playing fast and forcing the turnovers."
"France was a bit lucky that almost all the bounces went their way. Their conversation rate of the chances was high - while Argentina, for instance, had problems with converting their penalty corners. Later it was better, and immediately they were back in the match."
"I think that France played a great match and showed us how to play against Argentina. If you step into their trap to play a slow-paced game, they will be very strong because they are a very balanced team."
"I don’t think that (the defeat) was because they had already qualified - they really tried to win, but after the score was 3-5 they gave up."
Six days after the loss to France, a below-par Argentinian side went down to England by a 2-3 margin in the quarterfinal, thus ending their hopes of repeating their Olympic feat at the World Cup.
