RIO DE JANEIRO: Argentina and Belgium gate-crashed the Olympic field hockey festival and reached their first men’s final together on Tuesday. Nobody saw them coming.

Not Germany, the defending two-time champions, who were humiliated by a record 5-2 by the Argentines.

And not the Netherlands, who had never lost to their Belgian neighbours in major competition, but saw that 80-year streak terminated 3-1.

“This is crazy,” said Argentina midfielder Lucas Rey, who could have also spoken for Belgium. “We knew we could do this, but it’s still crazy.”

Defender Gonzalo Peillat hit a hat-trick of penalty corners with Joaquin Menini and Lucas Vila giving Argentina a 5-0 lead.

The Germans had enjoyed a streak of luck by scoring in the last eight seconds of three games but even though they came back furiously with a penalty stroke goal by captain Moritz Furste and a Christopher Ruhr goal, there was no chance of another miracle comeback.

Goals from Jerome Truyens, Florent van Aubel and John-John Dohmen guaranteed Belgium a place in their first ever Olympic final.

“It’s an historical night. It was a great game, amazing against Holland. I think we’ve never beaten them in an official tournament,” Dohmen told reporters. “Now we are doing the perfect tournament, the tournament for life and it’s at the right moment, at the Olympics.”

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2016