MONCHENGLADBACH (Germany), Sept 13: Spain, Germany and South Korea all booked their World Cup hockey semi-final berths on Wednesday. Spain were first up with a 4-2 defeat of Japan inspired by a Santiago Freixa hat trick.

Germany and South Korea played out a scoreless draw to progress from Pool `B’ at the expense of the Netherlands.

Kenichi Katayama opened the scoring for the Japan side, who failed to convert nine penalty corners, with a deflection after 15 minutes.

Spain hit back eight minutes later, Pol Amat tapping in a drive from Freixa, who scored his first goal early in the second-half with a spectacular backstick flick into the top of the net.

Katayama pulled the scores level at 2-2 with his second, deflected from a free hit outside the circle.

Freixa completed his hat trick with deflections at the right post in the 58th and 66th minutes to break the deadlock and leave Spain unbeaten in the round-robin pool games, with three wins and two draws to its credit.

In Germany's scoreless draw with South Korea, neither team conceded a penalty corner and played conservatively in order to avoid defeat.

The final 10 minutes saw both teams hit the ball around the backfield when they were in possession to the boos and whistles from the Dutch in the crowd as they played out the draw.

The result left Germany and South Korea on 11 points and the Dutch out of the podium fight, one point adrift.

Germany coach Bernhard Peters denied that the draw had been a fixed match.

“We tried to win and went out to win,” Peters said. “Only in the last 10 minutes did we play a defensive style with five players at the back.”German player Justus Scharowsky supported Peters. “We tried to attack in the first-half and it was the Koreans who did not attack us,” he said.

But he added: “If you ask the Dutch guys they would have done the same as us.”

Late on Tuesday, in Pool ‘B’ Germany defeated South Africa 5-0, and the Netherlands overwhelmed India 6-1.

Germany's systematic 5-0 demolition of South Africa today gave the players the boost they needed.

“I am happy with the performance of the boys in the second half and the fourth and fifth goals in the last minutes is good for our goal difference and for the self confidence of the players,” Peters said.

“It is a tough and close competition between the three top teams in our pool,” Peters said.

The Netherlands outdid Germany by overwhelming India 6-1 including four penalty corners and a penalty stroke to Taeke Taekema and a penalty corner to Roderick Weusthof.

Vasudevan Baskaran offered no excuse for India's poor performance.

“We were out-played in all departments today and it was disappointing to concede 10 penalty corners,” Baskaran said.

Roelant Oltmans, the Dutch coach, was diplomatic in his assessment of India.

“India is a fantastic hockey nation but it seems they did not perform at their best today,” he said.

India finished at the bottom of Pool `B’ and will play off for ninth to 12th position.—Agencies