Australia's women's team have narrowly missed out on a bronze medal at the Hockey World Cup after Belgium held on for a tense 1-0 victory in their play-off clash in the Netherlands.
The Hockeyroos were gunning for the third-place gong having missed out on making another World Cup final on Thursday when sunk by a late goal in their 1-0 semi-final defeat to Argentina.
And it was by the same scoreline the Aussies went down to the Belgians on Saturday, who claimed their first bronze medal since 1978 thanks to Charlotte Englebert's first-half strike in Amstelveen.
We gave it everything we had, but narrowly fall to Belgium and finish fourth at the 2026 FIH World Cup. Not the result we wanted, but one we'll learn and grow from. pic.twitter.com/rjNc1dDoQM
— Hockeyroos (@Hockeyroos) August 29, 2026
Steph Kershaw had gone close to making the breakthrough for the Hockeyroos prior to that when she found herself one-on-one with the Belgium keeper but fired agonisingly wide.
But Belgium's breakthrough came in the second quarter when Englebert expertly converted their first penalty corner of the match.
The Hockeyroos' response saw them string together some slick passing moves and strong attacks as they battled to redress the balance.
In a desperate bid to bring themselves level as time ran out Australia even took off goalkeeper Joce Bartram and introduced an additional outfield player with four minutes remaining.
In the end, though, it was to no avail as the Belgians were left wildly celebrating a famous victory.
Later, Argentina were crowned World Cup winners in a thrilling final after a 3-1 shoot-out victory over the Netherlands following a 1-1 stalemate.
The three-time winning hosts took the lead through Yibbi Jansen's eighth goal of the tournament on 30 minutes.
The lead was cancelled out by Maria Granatto to send the game to penalties and Argentina held their nerve in the shoot-out to grab their third World Cup title.
