Tokyo Olympics: Great Britain beat Ireland to progress to the quarter-finals
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Tokyo Olympics: Great Britain beat Ireland to reach quarter-finals
Tokyo Olympic Games on the BBC |
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Dates: 23 July-8 August Time in Tokyo: BST +8 |
Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app. |
Great Britain's women have reached the Olympic knockout stages after a 2-0 win over debutants Ireland, who were eliminated.
Susannah Townsend opened the scoring for Team GB in the second quarter from a penalty corner, knocking in the rebound after the in shot was saved by Irish goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran.
Hannah Martin then scored her third goal of the tournament to double the defending champions' lead after Ellie Rayer found her at the back post.
Great Britain will now face Spain in the quarter-finals on Monday, while Ireland have been eliminated, with India taking Group A's fourth and final qualification spot, having beaten South Africa 4-3.
Mark Hager's GB side had to wait to confirm their quarter-final appearance following a 1-0 loss to the Netherlands on Friday.
After an opening defeat by Germany last Sunday, Britain got their title defence back on track with 4-1 wins over South Africa and India.
It faltered again slightly with the narrow loss to 2016 finalists Netherlands - but they made their presence felt against Ireland with seven penalty corners.
Ireland knew going into the final group game that they needed to beat the Rio 2016 gold medallists convincingly to stand any chance of progressing in the competition.
Nicola Daly did manage to draw a save from Maddie Hinch but the GB keeper remained largely untroubled throughout the match.