Olympic Games: The Lions fell by a landslide against Australia

07/26/2021 11:46 PM

• Clarín.com

• sports

Updated 07/26/2021 11:46 PM

The Lions, who seek to defend in Tokyo 2020 the gold they won five years ago in Rio de Janeiro 2016, suffered a painful defeat against

Australia

, in their third presentation of Group A of the Olympic tournament.

The Argentines

fell by a clear 5 to 2

against the oceanic team, a nine-time Olympic medalist, and lost undefeated.

With intermittent rain on the north field of the

Oi Hockey

stadium

,

Leandro Tolini

opened the account for the Argentines four minutes into the first quarter, with a goal from a penalty corner.

But in the last seconds of that chapter, 

Blake Govers

equalized the score, by the same route.

Then began the ordeal of Los Leones, who received three goals in just 10 minutes.

At 6 in the second quarter, 

Tom Joseph

also put Australia short;

At 8, Govers scored again in the same way and two minutes later,

Lachlan Sharp

increased the gap (1-4).

The Australians, seeking their second Olympic title after Athens 2004 in Tokyo, came into the circle with ease and the South Americans could not find a way to contain the avalanche.

Tolini celebrates his goal against Australia, which gave Argentina a 1-0 partial lead.

Photo AP Photo / John Minchillo

A new penalty corner allowed

Jeremy Hayward to

score the oceanic's fifth goal at 9 in the third quarter.

With that great difference on the scoreboard, Australians took their foot off the gas and regulated the game times.

That allowed the Argentines to play and press a little more and thus

Maio Casella

, also short, narrowed the distance to five minutes from the end, for the final 2-5.

Argentina, which had drawn 1-1 with Spain and defeated Japan 2-1 in previous duels, came second in Group A with 4 points, five less than Australia, the unbeaten leader, who had debuted with a 1-1 draw against Spain and then beat the host 2-1.

The top four from each group qualify for the quarterfinals.

The next match of the Argentines will be on Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. in our country, against India.