India ends its league challenge with another defeat
India ends its league challenge with another defeat: The hosts India ended its pool B engagements with a 0-2 defeat at hands of Germany in the Odisha Hockey World League Final at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Monday.
India ended at the bottom of pool B with one point from the opening 1-1 drawn game against Australia. Todays' defeat, however, does not deny them a place in the quarter-finals as all eight teams competing here were assured of quarter-final berths.
After a barren first quarter, the hosts conceded two goals in first five minutes of the second quarter, a lead that Germans successfully sustained for the remaining 40 minutes of the game.
Earlier, Australia ended its engagements with a hard fought 2-2 draw with England thus making Germany the group leaders followed by England. Germany with two wins and a drawn game gathered seven points from three games and remained the only unbeaten team of the pool.
Germans started as if they wanted to wrap the match in the first quarter. Going full press, the Germans dominated the first half of the opening quarter, putting the home team on the defensive.
The Germans had to wait till the opening minute of the second quarter to forge ahead with a penalty corner goal from Martin Haner followed by another brilliant piece of stick work by Mats Grambusch in the 18th minute. No more goals were scored in the rest of the game though both teams had excellent exchanges, built good moves but fumbled in front of the goalmouth.
Now India awaits the outcome of pool A to know its quarter-final opponent.
-PTC News
