PARIS: The top-ranked Netherlands advanced to the men's hockey final at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday after beating Spain 4-0 with a clinical performance after having had to comeback against the same side in the group stage.
Cheers erupted from the sea of orange blanketing the crowd just before the final whistle as fans for the favourites showed up in force.
The Dutch will appear in their first Olympic final since London 2012, and have a chance to end their 24-year gold medal drought. Spain will get their first chance to compete for a medal since 2008 in the bronze medal match.
The Netherlands defender Jip Janssen opened the scoring with a converted penalty stroke in the 12th minute after keeper Luis Calzado kicked the legs out from under forward Tjep Hoedemakers while going for the ball.
Captain Thierry Brinkman netted the second in the 20th minute after collecting a rebound off of Spanish defender Ignacio Rodriguez's stick and blasting the ball into the back of the net.
The scoring continued in the opening minutes of the third quarter as Dutch forward Thijs van Dam sank his shot with plenty of space in the circle after two Spanish defenders collided with each other trying to collect a deep pass by the Dutch skipper.
The crowd erupted in the 50th minute once again as forward Duco Telgenkamp scored the team's fourth.-- Reuters