Wales thumped by France in Hockey World Cup qualifying

Wales' Hockey World Cup qualifying hopes hang by a thread after a 5-0 defeat by France in Santiago, Chile.

Victor Charlet opened the scoring for the French in the second quarter with a penalty stroke to take a 1-0 half-time lead.

Benjamin Marque scored with a powerful reverse stick shot past Toby Reynolds-Cotterill from a tight angle to double the French lead in the third quarter.

Charlet added his second goal four minutes later from a penalty corner to take a commanding lead into the final quarter.

Charlet completed his hat-trick with another penalty corner and Marque grabbed his second to compound Wales' misery.

Wales captain Ben Francis said:

"It's obviously a disappointing result for us.

"Credit to France they're a very good outfit and ranked ninth in the world for a reason.

"The performance didn't reflect where we are as a team.

"I thought we started well and were unlucky to be 1-0 at the break but we gave them too many chances in the second half and they punished us for it."

Looking ahead to the Scotland game, Francis remained upbeat that his side could get the result they need.

"The positive is we don't have long to dwell on the result with our last group game against Scotland [on Wednesday].

"We'll regroup, take the learnings from today and full focus on getting three points to give ourselves the best chance to qualify for the World Cup."

Wales have one point after two games in their pool after a 2-2 draw with hosts Chile on Sunday.

They play their final pool game against 20th ranked Scotland on Wednesday (21:00 GMT) knowing they will need to win by at least three goals to make it through to the semi-finals of qualifying.

Both teams would finish on four points and have the same goal difference and goals scored, but Wales would progress by virtue of head to head record.

Danny Newcombe's side are seeking World Cup qualification for just the second time in their history, having made their tournament debut in 2023 in India.

Scotland and Chile drew 2-2 in their game in Pool A on Tuesday.