GB’s women to contest bronze medal after semi-final defeat

Great Britain’s women will fight for a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics after suffering a semi-final defeat to The Netherlands.

Chances were few and far between in a hotly contested opening quarter. The Netherlands coming closest from a penalty corner at the very end of the opening fifteen minutes in which alert goalkeeping from Maddie Hinch would keep the scores level.

As time wore on, The Netherlands showed their ruthless side with a quick fire double early in the second quarter. A weaving run and lay off from Laurien Leurink found Felice Albers to fire beyond Hinch from close range to open the scoring.

Less than a minute later and the team were in again. This time Marloes Keetels finding time and space to rifle the ball into the bottom corner of the goal with a brilliant finish to double their lead and stun GB.

Mark Hager’s side showed signs of life and continued to fight to try and get back into the game. The team enjoying spells of possession deep in the Dutch half but struggling to break down the resilient defensive line.

The Netherlands were clinical come the second half and doubled their advantage just eight minutes after the interval. Marloes Verschoor got a wicked deflection from a penalty corner to score two minutes after the restart before Felice Albers made it 4-0 with her second goal of the game.

Minutes later, Sarah Jones surged forward on a powerful run to earn a penalty corner, from which GB responded to the deficit through Ansley’s magnificent drag flick to bring one back.

The team continued to press to get back into the game and looked to have won another penalty corner only to see it overruled following a video umpire review.

Though Maddie Hinch had impressed throughout with several impressive saves, she was unable to deny Matla from finding the fifth as the forward fired in from a penalty corner.

Despite being four down, GB persisted to push forward to look for a way back into the game. Ansley flashed another drag flick narrowly wide before a second penalty corner routine was unsuccessful as the team showed glimpses but couldn’t quite find the end product needed.

But it would be the reigning world champions who would take victory with an impressive performance to see them through. The result means that GB will face either Argentina or India on Friday 6 August in the bronze medal match.

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