Belgium strike late to beat Black Sticks

A penalty corner two minutes from fulltime has seen hosts Belgium take a 3-2 win over the Vantage Black Sticks Men in the first of two test matches.

Belgium ran out to a two goal advantage following field goals from Victor Wegnez in the ninth minute and Cedric Charlier midway through the third quarter.

The Black Sticks played a much stronger second half and clawed one back in the 45th minute when Sam Lane struck off a counter attack.

New Zealand equalised five minutes later from another counter with Stephen Jenness finding the back of the net.

With the game heading towards a draw, the hosts snatched a victory thanks to a pin-point penalty corner flick from Tom Boon in the 58th minute.

Head coach Darren Smith said despite the loss it was a solid performance from his side against Belgium, who are ranked fifth in the world.

"It was a decent performance from us today I thought, given we only arrived in Belgium two days ago," Smith said.

"Belgium are a classy side - they were able to hold a fair amount of possession and caused us some problems on both sides of the ball.

"I was pleased that we were able to respond after going down by two, and we certainly strung together some good hockey in patches."

The Vantage Black Sticks play Belgium again at 6:00am on Thursday morning (NZT) before heading to South Africa ahead of the World League Semi Final which starts on 8th July in Johannesburg.

VANTAGE BLACK STICKS 2: (Sam Lane, Stephen Jenness)

BELGIUM 3: (Victor Wegnez, Cedric Charlier, Tom Boon)

Halftime: Belgium 1-0



- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Hockey NZ