Point secured by Britain but progress tempered by Spanish fury at officials

Great Britain survived a tense finish to book their place in an Olympic semi-final for the first time since they won gold in 1988.

They secured the point they needed in a 1-1 draw with Spain to finish second in Pool A and now go on to meet Holland in the last four.

Ashley Jackson scored his fifth goal in as many games to give his side a lead late in the first half and even though Pau Quemada converted a second-half set-piece allowing Spain to pile on some late pressure, Britain can, like their women, look forward to a semi-final on home turf.

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But afterwards a furious Spain coach, Dani Martin, accused umpires of bias towards the tournament “favourites” and believes the actions of officials ruined his side’s chances of making the semi-finals.

Martin’s claims he saw officials twice make U-turns on two Spain penalty corner decisions in the last three minutes having been surrounded by GB players protesting.

Video replays appear to suggest the decisions were ultimately correct, but Martin was angered that it seemed the umpires appeared to bow to pressure and change their minds.

“I feel that the FIH (International Hockey Federation) needs to take these things very seriously because this is a very serious situation,” said Martin, who confronted officials John Wright, a South African, and New Zealander Simon Taylor at the final whistle and also directed his fury at the technical delegates’ bench pitchside.

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“It cannot happen that an international official changes his decision twice – especially as he is surrounded by opposition players.

“It has already happened before in other matches (here) that an umpire has been surrounded by players.

“We are in a tournament where there are clear favourites and these countries are being favoured.”

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