New Delhi: The Netherlands spanked Malaysia 7-2 to bag the bronze medal in the Hero Junior Men's Hockey World Cup at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium, here today.
Last edition's silver medallists, Netherlands dished out a clinical performance to rout Malaysia in a lop-sided third-fourth place classification match.
The Netherlands made the encounter a no contest by racing to a 5-1 lead in the first half before pumping in two more goals after the crossover.
For Netherlands, Thierry Brinkman (6th minute, 28th) and Tom Hiebendaal (18th, 37th) scored a brace each, while skipper Roel Bovendeert (3rd), Milan van Baal (23rd) and Jelle (Galema) found the back of the net once each.
Zulhairi Hashim converted two penalty corners in the seventh and 60th minutes to redeem some pride for the Malaysians.
Malaysia, however, had lot of positives to take from the match as they finished on a creditable fourth spot after 1985.
Meanwhile, Australia secured the fifth position by beating Belgium 3-2 in the penalty shoot-out after both the teams were locked at 2-2 at the end of regulation time.
While Belgium took the sixth spot, New Zealand finished seventh following their 4-2 win over Korea in the seventh-eighth play-off match.
