Men's hockey wide open

Sohail Abbas (arms raised) hit Pakistan's equaliser

Germany consolidated their chances of making the Olympic men's hockey semi-finals with a fighting 2-2 draw against defending champions the Netherlands.

Barring a big upset in their last match against Britain, Germany are assured of advancing from Pool A while the Dutch and Pakistanis are in contention for the group's second semi-final slot.

Germany, twice Olympic title-holders, and the Netherlands both have eight points from four matches, while Pakistan have five.

The Pakistanis grabbed a last-minute equalizer against Malaysia, with drag-flick specialist Sohail Abbas making the final score 2-2.

Pakistan, which has a better goal differential than the Netherlands, need to beat the Dutch in their last preliminary match to advance.

Bounced back

Eight-time gold medalist India bounced back into contention for its first semi-final since 1980 with a hard-earned 3-2 win over Spain that knocked the Atlanta silver medalists out of the competition.

That left the semi-final places from Pool B wide open, with Australia, India, South Korea and Poland all in contention.

Australia was given a scare before two penalty corner conversions in the last 16 minutes enabled it to beat Argentina 2-1 to take the top slot in the pool with eight points from four matches.

India is second with seven points from four matches, followed by South Korea with five points and Poland with four, each from three matches.

The World champion Dutch took a two-goal lead in the crunch tie against Germany as skipper Stefan Veen converted a penalty stroke in the third minute and Tuen de Nooijer scored with a reverse hit in the 20th.

Flash strikes

Germany came back with two flash strikes in open play as Bjorn Michel drove home in the 31st minute. Ulrich Moissl then breached the Dutch defense seconds before half-time to draw level.

Playing a robust, tight marking game, Argentina held its ground against fancied Australia and surged into the lead in the 54th minute.

Striker Jorge Lombi picked up a long ball inside the scoring zone and sent a sizzling reverse hit into the cage.

Australia came charging back and got the equalizer on a set-piece penalty corner goal by Daniel Sproule in the 56th minute.

Michael Brennan's penalty corner conversion in the 62nd minute saved victory for the hosts.