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Olympic silver medallist Spain continued their domination over England in the hockey World Cup, defeating the European Champions 2-0 in their last pool match at the 12th edition of the mega-event in New Delhi on Monday.
With this win, Spain registered their fifth victory over England out of seven World Cup matches the two teams have played so far.
The Englishmen finished on the winning side only once while one game ended without result.
Pau Quemada (35th minute) and Eduard Tubau (64th) scored the goals for Spain at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium and almost sealed their third position in the Pool B with nine points.
The victory, however, came too late for Spain as it did very little to brighten their semifinal hopes.
England were already through to the last-four stage of the tournament prior to the match with four wins out of their five matches and most likely title favourites Australia will join them as they have a better goal average than the Spaniards and also a game at hand.
In order to progress to the semis, Spain first needed to beat England by a huge margin and hope that Pakistan prevail over Australia by a big score.
The victory, however, assured Spain a place in the fifth-sixth play-off match on Friday unless Pakistan beat Australia by a margin of 13 goals, which is highly unlikely.