By Carl Markham, PA Sport

Both England teams are just 70 minutes away from semi-final showdowns and their coaches are sounding confident.

The men face South Africa, whom they played earlier this year in a drawn four-match Test series overseas, while the women take on Scotland.

Men's coach Malcolm Wood watched South Africa get hammered 5-2 by New Zealand thanks to four goals from penalty corner specialist Hayden Shaw - the tournament's top scorer with eight.

Afterwards he declared that there was nothing to be scared of going into today's game, which has been brought forward to 4pm to accommodate a live television broadcast.

"South Africa looked tired and it looks like they are carrying some injuries," he told PA Sport.

"They have got to get themselves up but they are still in with shout for a semi-final so in some ways that result (against New Zealand) didn't matter for them.

"They look a little bit more disorganised than when we went to play them in South Africa. They look very 'gettable at' at the back."

By contrast, England strolled past Wales 5-0 with two penalty strokes from captain Craig Parnham, and one apiece from Reading duo Mark Pearn and Jon Wyatt and Canterbury's Dave Mathews.

The only black cloud - apart from the one which descended on the ground to provide a Manchester monsoon on Tuesday - was that England's penalty corner specialist Mathews was stretchered off with a hamstring injury and is doubtful for the rest of the tournament.

"To miss someone who has proven himself in a World Cup (Mathews finished third highest scorer in Malaysia in February) as being a threat against the best teams in the world does create problems for us," Wood added.

That result put Wales out of medal contention and they must play Barbados in the wooden spoon match on Friday.

However, the Caribbean side - whom the Belle Vue crowd have adopted as their own - will not present any obstacle after defending champions Australia hammered a Commonwealth Games record 20-1 against them.

Second-favourites Pakistan beat Canada 3-0 to move straight into Friday's semis while the North Americans face the Kiwis today.

England's women underwent some intensive recovery work yesterday in an attempt to get over the draining effects of Monday's 1-1 draw with India in heat and humidity which now appears to have disappeared for good.

Coach Tricia Heberle is expecting a scrappy game against the Scots.

"I think they will come and play fairly defensive," she said.

"They will be frightened by the speed of our game and the skill of the players we have got.

"We just have to be really professional, really focused and clinical because there is a job to be done and the girls have got to get out there and do it."

In the other cross-over game, South Africa play India.