Audrey O’Flynn’s final hooter penalty corner saw the Irish home crowd explode as they claimed the laurels from a frenetic, extra-time quarter-final tussle to edge out Belgium. It earns the Irish a final four date with USA while the Belgians fall into the 5^th to 8^th playoffs where they will play Wales on Saturday.

It earned a small amount of payback for Ireland at the hands of the side that ended their Olympic dream back in March though they rode their luck at times. Belgium twice had clear openings in the first half as Erica Coppey and Alix Gerniers raised close-range efforts over the bar as they looked the more threatening side in the first half.

But Ireland took the lead from their first shot in anger in the 50^th minute when Michelle Harvey’s drag-flick ballooned up off the first runner and over Aisling D’Hooghe. It fell perfectly for Aine Connery to tap in from the right post. Both Louise Cavenaile and O’Flynn spent time in the sin-bin during a hectic closing phase before Belgium brought the game to extra-time via Anouk Raes’ tidy penalty corner goal seven minutes from time.

And Jill Boon went centimetres from ending the tie a minute into golden goal as her clip shot hit the inside of the post. In response, Alex Speers missed a seemingly open goal on the stroke of half-time of the extra periods. But Emma Smyth earned a corner on the final whistle and, at the second attempt, O’Flynn picked out the bottom corner for the victory.