Madrid: Ignace Tirkey turned India's saviour with a last minute goal as India overcame Canada 6-4 in their last league engagement to qualify for the men's hockey competition of Athens Olympics in August.

Ignace scored the all important goal with barely few seconds left to take his side to the semi-finals after India, despite leading 4-0 at half-time, conceded four goals at crucial junctures and allowed their rivals to bounce back.

Deepak Thakur's hat-trick and a goal each by Dilip Tirkey and Arjun Halappa made India's job easier to qualify for the semi-finals ahead of Pakistan and New Zealand, who would battle it out in their last Pool B match later today (Mar 9, 2004).

Canada did their bit to upset the Indians with four goals in the second half with Sean Campbell sounding the board twice and Rob Short and Paul Wettlaufer converting a penalty stroke and penalty corner respectively.

The win took India's points tally to 10 from five matches with a plus four goal difference. It will be a toss up between Pakistan (10 points) and New Zealand (7) for the other spot in the semi-finals.

India needed to beat New Zealand by at least a two-goal margin and though Canada raised fears of pulling off an upset, Ignace struck at the death to seal the fate of the match.