Ireland men one victory away from Paris Olympics

Japan 0-1 Ireland

The Ireland's men's hockey team are one win away from a place at the Paris Olympics, following their 1-0 victory over Japan at the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers in Valencia.

Coming off the back of an entertaining 4-2 defeat to Belgium on Monday, Ireland went into their final pool game against the Japanese knowing that a place in the semi-final against Spain was still up for grabs.

That semi-final will be shown live on the RTÉ News channel and RTÉ Player on Friday with the push back at 11.30am.

With so much on the line the opening was tense and nervous, but it was Ireland who made the crucial breakthrough in the 21st minute.

A Shane O'Donoghue penalty-corner teed up Luke Madeley, who struck the ball true and scored what proved to the be the game's only goal.

Ireland had to live on their nerves from there on out as an increasingly desperate Japan side chased an equaliser. The Green Machine were able to withstand a late series of penalty-corners as Japan withdrew their goalkeeper to have an extra attacker, but to no avail.

The result sees Ireland finish second in their pool behind Belgium and sets up Friday's huge semi-final against Spain.

With three teams qualifiying for the Olympics from the final four teams, even defeat would leave Ireland with a route to Paris as the winner of the third-place play-off also qualifies.

"Without the ball we've become comfortable in deep defence," head coach Mark Tumilty said afterwards.

"Deep defence is something we have worked on. The objective was to get out of the group. We have achieved that, and we now face into a huge challenge against Spain in the semi-final on Friday."

Friday could be quite an occasion for Ireland, with men's captain Sean Murray highlighting the