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Spain and France drew 1-1 at the Kalinga Stadium in their Pool A fixture of the 2018 Hockey World Cup.
In the 6th minute of the first quarter, Victor Charlet carved out an opportunity for goal as his clever backhander pass was deflected in the back of the net by Timothee Clement.
Les Blues dominated the first quarter as they had 7 circle penetrations compared to just 5 for the Red Sticks. After that, Jeroen Delmee's men were just happy to sit back with the Spanish team bombing forward with attack after attack.
After many unsuccessful penalty corners, Spain finally breached the resilient France defense as Alvaro Iglesias found the back of the net in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter.
Both the teams now sit on 1 point each with -1 goal difference after two matches. Spain just edge France in the 3rd position via more goals scored and is in a better position to qualify for the crossover matches.
#5 Outstanding French defence
France conceded just 2 goals against the dangerous Black Sticks and proved their tactical defensive masterclass once more as they conceded just one goal, that too in the fourth quarter of the match.
After scoring an early goal, the French defense came up against an energetic, skillful and creative Spain attack but they did not give in. Every Spanish attack was thwarted away by the resilient defense.
The Red Sticks had 7 Penalty corners but they failed to convert any of them because of the excellent saves made by Arthur Thieffry. When the goalkeeper was beaten, the defense stood up to deny the Spanish side any way through to goal.
From a Penalty corner, Romeu's shot was heading for the top corner with Thieffry well beaten and up stepped Tom Gentstet who deflected the ball wide.
#4 Arthur Thieffry rises to the fore
Arthur Thieffry was at mistake for New Zealand's winner in France's first match in the 2018 World Cup but he stepped up to prove his mettle against Frederic Soyez's men.
Spain's first penalty corner in the second quarter fell to Pau Quemada whose excellent strike was saved by the French goalkeeper. Thieffry is known for being strong on his right side but he barely had a second to react to Quemada's super strike.
The 29-year old made five more brilliant saves in the following seven minutes to ensure that his side goes into the half-time break with a lead.
#3 Spain waste quite a few scoring opportunities
Spain was on the back foot five minutes in the match and that sparked a reaction from their attackers. Within a minute of going down, the Spanish team carved out an opportunity with only two French defenders at the back but they missed the golden chance as the cross from the right wasn't received by the man in the middle.
In the fourth minute of the third quarter, Enrique Gonzalez fired his half volley wide from 3 yards when his teammates found him in acres of space.
Later in the third quarter, a rare mistake from the French defense gave Albert Beltran a golden opportunity to score but he made a mess of it and slipped in the striking circle.
All the hard work from the Red Sticks paid off when Alvaro Iglesias scored the equalizer.
#2 Quico Cortez shows the value of experience
Quico Cortez stepped out in the Kalinga Stadium on Monday to play his 262nd international match. The 35-year old has bags of experience and led out his team on the pitch wearing the captain armband.
The skipper let in an early goal from the French team which he could have done nothing about. Except that, he had not much to do the whole game with his defense helping out on several occasions and the French forwards firing their shots wide as well.
In the 50th minute of the match, Gaspard Baumgarten was obstructed very near to the goal. A French referral saw Les Blues earn a penalty stroke. A quick reaction save from Cortez proved why he is considered one of the best keepers ever.
#1 Underdogs punching above their weight
Pool A was being considered the toughest group to be a part of, especially for the lowest ranked team in the tournament. The 20th ranked France has 2nd ranked Argentina, 8th ranked Spain and 9th ranked New Zealand in their group but they have gave two very good performances in the World Cup till now; narrowly losing the first and drawing the second fixture.
The French team that played against Spain had only 5 players with over 100 international caps while the opposition had players like Cortez (262) and Mark Salles (200) in their team.
Head to Sportskeeda to check out the Hockey World Cup schedule for the upcoming matches
