Spain are through to the men’s Junior World Cup final for the first time where they will meet Germany who are in pursuit of an eighth title.
The two semi-finals had contrasting scripts, where Spain had to fight it out before edging Argentina 2-1 and Germany dominated India in a one-sided 5-1 victory.
For the former, Spain scripted history on the Chennai turf as they eked out a 2-1 win to knock over two-time champions Argentina.
Spain’s tactics to exert early pressure yielded immediate results, as a ricochet during a 7th-minute penalty-corner set-piece fell at the stick of Mario Mena who made no mistake in putting his team ahead 1-0.
The two sides kept exchanging blows, including near misses, until the 21st minute when Argentina finally converted a penalty corner through Juan Fernandez to bring the game on an even keel. It remained 1-1 at the half-time hooter.
But Spain were the ones to capitalise on their chances in the closing phases when a long ball directed towards the Argentine circle got a touch from Albert Serrahima, and the same was ratified by the video umpire.
The Spaniards celebrated their historic run into the final and will now have their best ever result following two bronze medals (2005 and 2023).
“It feels amazing. I dreamt of this a lot, also during the last World Cup, just like now. Today we have achieved what we wanted. It hasn’t been easy, but now we are in the final,” said Spain goalkeeper Jan Capellades.
For Germany, they proved too strong with a comprehensive 5-1 win over hosts India in the second semi-final in Chennai to advance to Wednesday’s final.
Germany drew first blood when Lucas Kossel calmly put away a penalty stroke late in the 14th minute, after Quirin Nahr’s flick hit Ankit Pal on the body on the goal-line.
Next, Titus Wex’s hit from inside the circle brushed Sunil Bennur’s stick and went into the goal for 2-0 and Kossel collecting his second goal off a penalty corner to make it 3-0 at half-time.
Jonas von Gersum and Ben Hasbach added further goals in the second half to extend the lead to five before India got a consolation with nine minutes to go.
“It’s unbelievable! I think it was a great team performance. It was for sure our best game in the whole World Cup. Now it’s down to the last game (final), so we have to win,” said Wex, who also reflected on his team’s run in the tournament.
“Our beginning was quite good; we scored a lot of goals. But our defending was not at the level that we can play normally. I think today it (defence) was the key to our win. Now we have to keep going.”
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