Ireland win thriller against Korea to book their place at Paris Olympic Games

Ireland 4-3 Korea

Ireland booked their ticket to the Paris Games with a magnificent victory over Korea in their men's Olympic hockey qualifier third-placed play-off in Valencia on Sunday.

Goals from Matthew Nelson, Ben Johnson, John McKee and Shane O'Donoghue swung it for the Green Machine, but a superb match was on a knife edge right to the very end.

With both teams in the last-chance saloon, it was open and high-tempo fare.

The contest ebbed and flowed from the off, though it took until the final 67 seconds of the first quarter for Ireland to get the breakthrough. After a penalty corner - awarded for an infringement by Manjae Jung - Nelson turned home from close range.

Ben Johnson doubles Ireland's lead as they close on a place at the Paris Olympics

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Just over three minutes into quarter two, it got even better. McKee's initial effort was saved but Johnson buried the rebound high into the net to double Ireland's advantage.

It was going so smoothly for Mark Tumilty's team but Korea were never going to go down without a fight. They halved the deficit when a penalty corner caused panic; David Harte initially made a good stop but the ball looped off the post and Kim Junghoo knocked it in.

An onslaught felt inevitable - instead, Ireland went up the other end and restored their two-goal advantage. Sean Murray darted into the circle and slid a composed pass to the middle for McKee to confidently guide home.

Thirty seconds before half-time, there was another twist in a rollercoaster encounter. Korea varied their penalty corner routine and Junwoo Jeong's low strike squeezed past Harte.

Shane O'Donoghue scores from a penalty corner as Ireland lead 4-2