Picture Credit: Hockey India
The ongoing Junior Men's Hockey World Cup in Bhubaneswar is living up to the expectations as Kalinga Stadium, the venue for the tournament, is presenting thrilling matches one after another.
In one of the nail-biting games on Friday, Argentina inched France in a penalty shootout to enter the final of the tournament. However, the event witnessed one of the forgettable incidents after players of both Argentina and France got involved in a fight soon after the game ended with the 2005 champions entering the final.
What had happened?
After converting 3 of the first four chances in the penalty shootout, Argentina were leading 3-1 against France. Meanwhile, the trailing side needed to score on their fourth opportunity to at least stay in the game. Lucas Montecot took the strike and unfortunately found the pole on the right corner of the goalpost to see France getting out of the competition.
Making a way into the final, Argentina players started rejoicing the victory. Meanwhile, some of the players got involved in a scuffle with France players as and they were reportedly abused by them. The issue soon became serious after a lot many players from both sides got involved in the scuffle. To control the situation, the match referees and security staff entered the scene and stopped the players from making it further problematic.
After the fight was put to an end, the Argentina players started shouting in joy once again, and normalcy was restored.
Argentina advance to third final
It is worth noting that this is Argentina's third final in the history of the event. They had first made it to the final in 2001 where they had lost to India, before winning the title in 2005 by beating Australia.
Argentina had started their campaign at the ongoing Junior Men's Hockey World Cup with a 14-0 win over Egypt. After this, they lost 2-3 to Germany before beating Pakistan 4-3 and entering the quarterfinal. In the knockout, they defeated Netherlands 2-1. They will now be playing the final of the event of December 5.