The Netherlands makes it

Defending champion Germany and the Netherlands joined England and Australia to complete the semifinal line-up in the Hero Honda hockey World Cup on Tuesday.

Korea, the Asian powerhouse, missed the berth by a whisker after subduing the Dutch. The 2-1 victory for Korea was insufficient to cover up the goal-difference which eventually stood at plus 10 for the Netherlands and plus eight for Korea.

A splendid mix of professional efficiency and technical competence gave Germany a 5-2 victory over New Zealand to confirm the last four place and the top spot in Pool A with 11 points.

Line-up for semifinals and classification matches:

Semifinals: Germany vs. England; Australia vs. Netherlands;

Classification: 5-6: Korea vs. Spain; 7-8: India vs. Argentina; 9-10: New Zealand vs. South Africa; 11-12: Pakistan vs. Canada.

The results:

Pool A: Germany 5 (Christoph Menke, Florian Fuchs, Philip Witte, Moritz Furste, Matthias Witthaus ) bt New Zealand 2 ( Shea McCaleese, Brian Nicolas). HT 2-0.

Korea 2 (Woo Hyun Nam, Jang Ho Seo) beat Netherlands 1 ( Ronald Brouwer). HT 1-1.

Argentina 4 (Lucas Vila, Mathias Parades, Mario Almada, Tomas Innocente) bt Canada 2 (Scott Tupper, David Jameson). HT: 1-0.