Wales have secured their first ever World Cup Win against European rivals France.
There is a tense history between the two sides with 7 draws in the 39 match ups. The last time the two met Wales just edged a 2-1 victory in the final of the World Cup Qualifiers on home turf in Cardiff and you could sense France were looking for revenge today.
Little separates the sides in world rankings with France only two places above Wales at 14th, so this was always going to be a tight clash.
It was Wales who took the lead early on from one of the co-captains Luke Hawker who cautiously guided the ball past the keeper but Corentin Sellier dampened Wales’ celebrations by finding the equaliser in the last 4 seconds of the first quarter before finding the net again in the second.
Not wanting to remain behind Gareth Furlong converted one of his infamous drag flicks to bring Wales level again before half time.
In typical Welsh hockey fashion, the game went to the wire with a two all draw resulting in a must win shootout in order to progress to the 9th-12th ranking matches. keeper Toby Reynolds-Cotterill was the hero as he saved four of France's five shootout attempts to determine the historic win.
Rupert Shipperley and Gareth Furlong netted key goals to secure a 2-1 victory in the shootout.
Gareth Furlong was also the recipient of Wales’ first ever World Cup ‘Player of the Match Award’
Wales will now go on to play either Chile or Argentina to fight for 9th-12th place on Saturday at 1:30pm