Kookaburras smashed 6-2 in Tokyo gold medal rematch against Belgium
Australia was handed a 6-2 hiding at the hands of Belgium to see their unbeaten run in Paris evaporate in the men's hockey.
In what was a rematch of the gold medal match from Tokyo 2021, where the Aussies went down in a penalty shootout to the Europeans, the Belgians piled on the pain again.
Despite dominating possession and with three more shots on goal, including none from eight penalty corners, poor execution let the Kookaburras down.
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It was Australia's first loss of their Olympic campaign, with Belgium's Tom Boon slamming home a hat-trick in front of a a vocal pro-Belgium crowd.
"It was one of those games," Australia's Tom Craig said.
"Reigning Olympic champions and such a good team for so long and this is why, you don't have to give them many opportunities to see a score-line like that.
"We'd like to think the game was a little bit different than what the scoreline reflected at the final siren but that's what you get when you play Belgium, they're so deadly on taking their chances.
Tom Boon of Team Belgium celebrates scoring his team's sixth goal, his hat-trick. Getty
"It's a long tournament and you don't win it in the pool stages.
"There's heaps of learnings that we can take from this and we've got a couple more games to put them into practice before the finals."
Lachlan Sharp and Blake Govers scored for the Kookaburras.
The Aussies went down 2-0 in a slow start to the match, before Sharp found the back of the net.
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But Belgium extended the lead at half time, when Boon scored just a few minutes later to lead 3-1 at the main break.
Florent van Aubel converted his penalty corner to make it 4-1 and then Antoine Kina made it 5-1, before the Aussies grabbed a late consolation goal and Boon grabbed his hat-trick late in proceedings.
Following the loss, the Kookaburras are third in Pool B with six points.
Belgium and India have already qualified from the group.
The Aussies will play New Zealand in their last group match. The top four teams of six qualify for the quarter-finals.
