England progressed from the group stages of the Men's Hockey World Cup at the expense of Ireland, whom they beat 4-2 in India ©Getty Images

England progressed to the cross-over games at the expense of Ireland today as they beat them 4-2 in their final Pool B match at the International Hockey Federation (FIH) Men’s World Cup in Bhubaneswar.

That result meant that, despite being beaten 11-0 by defending champions Australia in the penultimate Pool B match, China progressed in third place.

England will now play New Zealand and China will take on France – who earned dramatic qualification by beating Olympic champions Argentina yesterday.

Both matches will take place on Monday (December 10).

China’s heavy defeat meant that both Ireland and England only needed to draw in order to progress through to the knock-out stages, as their respective goal differences were now superior to the team from Asia.

England’s David Condon opened the scoring in the last minute of the first quarter of what proved to be a tense and fluctuating contest.

Ireland, world-ranked three places below their opponents at 10, equalised in the 35th minute through Chris Cargo.

However, two minutes later, Liam Ansell gave the lead again to England thanks to a hit into the roof of the net.

Ireland responded immediately to draw level for a second time thanks to a drag-flick from Shane O’Donoghue from a penalty-corner.

England and Ireland played out a thrilling contest today ©Getty Images
England and Ireland played out a thrilling contest today ©Getty Images

But England went immediately on the attack again and scored a third goal a minute later with a superb deflection from James Gall before sealing victory in the last minute as Mark Gleghome converted a penalty-corner .

“Today we took our chances," England’s Luke Taylor said.

“That really helped us and that will give us confidence going forward.

“We’re not going to worry about anyone else.’

“We’re going to go out there and play our game and do the best we can, really.”

Despite already being assured of top position in the Pool, Australia did anything but relax as they overwhelmed a side that had earlier drawn 2-2 with England and 1-1 with Ireland through a hat-trick by Blake Govers and goals from eight of his colleagues.

Tomorrow the final matches in Pool C will take place, with Belgium facing South Africa before home team India, world-ranked fifth and currently second behind  third-ranked Belgium, take on Canada.

Each of the four pool winners earns a place in the quarter finals, while the teams that finish second and third go into the cross-over play-offs.

Teams finishing fourth will be eliminated from the competition.