Four women’s teams from Europe have joined their a quartet of men’s teams in the knock-out stages as GB, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain will contest the quarter-finals.
Great Britain topped Pool B as they came from a goal down to beat USA, keeping their perfect record in tact while ending the Americans run of wins.
Michelle Vittese’s cracking finish from the top of the circle opened the scoring but Sophie Bray got the Brits back on terms with eight minutes to go with a close range touch after a clever corner was returned to the injector.
Alex Danson then won the game when she gambled on everyone missing Sam Quek’s long pass and she got the slightest of touches into the goal.
Speaking about the win, Kate Richardson-Walsh said: “Winning dirty. I think that was a hard-fought battle and we had to really show some resilience.
“We had a lot of possession but we just weren’t quite getting chances. We had a lot of corners and we just had to turn those into goals and we had to wait and wait and wait until later into the game.”
GB are the last remaining side with side with a perfect record in the competition going into the knock-out stages.
They will meet surprise package Spain. Adrian Lock’s team gave themselves a chance of advancing when they came from a goal down to beat Korea 3-2 with Maria Lopez de Eguilaz making an important save in the last minute to secure the result. Goals from Begona Garcia, Lola Riera and Gloria Comerma helped them on their way.
It was their second successive win and meant that if New Zealand could beat China, they would be through to the last eight. The Kiwis did them that favour with a comfortable 3-0 success that left them in second place in the group with China dropping to fifth. Germany, despite their loss, ended up in third place and will face the USA in their quarter-final on Monday.
Argentina secured their passage into the quarter-finals with a 5-0 win over India. Martina Cavallero scored twice to help them finish in fourth place in Pool B.
They will play the Netherlands in a mouth-watering tie. The Dutch were 2-0 winners over Germany with Xan de Waard and Kitty van Male on the mark to copper-fasten their place at the top of their group.
Australia were 2-0 winners against Japan to finish in third place in Pool B. Mariah Williams broke the deadlock in the first half before Emily Smith completed the win with six minutes to go. Their reward is a date with their Trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand.
** For full details on the draw, click here