Champions Trophy Hockey Tournament: A hat trick of goals by Gonzalo Peillat sinks Australia
A hat trick of goals by penalty corner specialist Gonzalo Peillat helped Olympic Champions Argentina to sink World Cup champions Australia 3-2 in the last round of the 37th and farewell edition of Champions Trophy Hockey Tournament at Breda in the Netherlands on Saturday. The win has brought Argentina within the grasp of a medal. Starting its campaign with a win against the hosts, the Netherlands, Argentina ended its pool game engagements with a surprise win over World Cup champions and World number Australia. In between Argentina played a draw with Olympic finalists Belgium besides suffering shock defeats at hands of two Asian giants - India and Pakistan. Assured of a place in the final, World Cup champions Australia preferred to take its last game lightly so as to preserve energy for the gold medal match on Sunday. Playing at reduced pace, the Hockeyroos, did try to draw the game but was little unlucky as a shot taken from a penalty corner, 90 seconds before the final whistly, hit the goalpost and bounced back into play. Against its usual style of fast attacking offensive hockey, Aussies were today pushing and pushing than creating moves they are known for. Gonzalo Peillat, who notched up the first hat trick of the farewell edition of the Champions Trophy, scored from the second penalty corner in the 13th minute for his fourth goal of the tournament. He followed it up with penalty corner conversions in 28th and 51st minutes to take his personal tally of goals in the tournament to six. Australia got its first goal immediately at the start of the second quarter when Brand slammed home after a good move. It was he again who latched on to a defence lapse in the 54th minute to hoist the second goal for his team. This was Australia's first defeat here. Earlier, they had played a drawn game against Belgium and beaten Pakistan, India and the Netherlands
