ONI Bureau: Olympics Gold Medalist Argentina beat European super power Spain 4-3 in a thrilling encounter of Pool A at the Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar to kick start their Hockey World Cup 2018 campaign in style. Spain got a great chance to equalize in the last two seconds of the game, but failed to end up on the losing side.
It was Spain which went aggressive from the beginning and scored in the 3rd minute of the game when Enrique Gonzalez beat the Argentine goal post. Argentina equalized in the 4th minute through Agustin Mazzilli. Pepe Romeu gave the lead to Spain in the 14th minute, but Agustin Mazzilli equalized again with his second goal of the match a minute later.
Gonzalo Peillat gave Argentina a 3-2 lead in the 16th minute. Vicenc Ruiz made it 3-3 in the 35th minute and the game was evenly poised. However, Gonzalo Peillat scored again in the 49th minute and Argentina maintained the 4-3 lead till the end.
Agustin Mazzilli was declared ‘Player of the Match’.