Germany will meet Poland; Belgium come up against Namibia and Austria face Australia in the quarter-finals as the FIH Indoor World Cup in Poreč reaches the business end.

The Belgian men made sure of their place with an emphatic 7-3 win over Australia in their second game and followed up with a 7-2 win over Trinidad & Tobago on Thursday with four more goals from Philippe Simar.

The German men advanced with an 8-2 win in a heated encounter against Argentina. The Argentinians desperately wanted a win to avoid the permutations involved in determining the two non-automatic places in the quarterfinals and found themselves trailing by just one goal towards the end of the third quarter.

Things fell apart quickly though as they conceded two penalty strokes and a soft goal from a poor pass across the goalmouth. Player of the match Ben Hasbach did most of the damage with his five goals for Germany.

On Thursday, Mustapha Cassiem bagged another hat-trick to steer South Africa to the quarterfinals with a vital 5-2 win over Poland.

“They made it pretty tough for us. We knew that they’re a pretty good team as a unit, and we knew that we had to bring our A-game,” he said after being named player of the match.

Australia and Namibia played out a thrilling 5-5 draw to wrap up the group stages, a result which saw both advance along with Poland.

Earlier in the evening, two-time defending champions Austria found themselves trailing against hosts Croatia before recovering to win 4-2.

The home side went ahead in the second minute and it took the Austrians nearly 20 minutes to get their nose in front.

** Wherever you are, find out where you can watch the competition here: https://www.fih.hockey/events/fih-indoor-world-cup-croatia-2025/where-to-watch