Germany outpace Pakistan

Germany defeated Pakistan 2-1 at the men’s 4-Nations tournament here Friday while the Netherlands drew 2-2 with England to move atop the table after two games.

Pakistan showed early speed in the first minute when the flowing locks of Shakeel Abbasi flew down the right and his pass found Muhammad Zubair to shoot into goal.

Germany gradually broke down Pakistan’s midfield zonal defence and earned its first penalty corner in the last seconds of the first half, Jan-Marco Montag converting to bring the scores equal.

Germany found their way through Pakistan’s defence more easily in the second half and held possession in Pakistan’s defensive quarter for long periods.

Moritz Furste scored the winning goal, neatly negotiating a packed circle of defenders to flick high into the net over defenders.

Germany coach Markus Weisse was not left a happy man, saying: “I can’t say I liked the game and no one deserved a prize for the performances out there.”Khawaja Junaid, the Pakistan manager, was left ruing his side’s inability to finish.

“We missed some sitters and we need to be stronger on the ball and we need to finish stronger but we have time to make the improvements we need before the Champions Trophy in New Delhi at the end of the year,” Junaid said.

The loss leaves Pakistan at the bottom of the pool table with one point from the draw against England.

The speed, skill and structure of the 2-2 draw between Netherlands and England highlighted the gap Pakistan must bridge to be competitive with the top five ranked teams here.

Jeroen Hertzberger scored early for Netherlands and Jonty Clarke claimed England’s equaliser before the break.

Rogier Hofman took the Dutch ahead early in the second half but Barry Middleton was on hand to convert a break-out from a Netherlands press to bring the scores level once again.

“It was a big game, played at a high standard and either side could have won it,” England coach Jason Lee said.

Dutch counterpart Paul van As said: “2-2 is not good enough, even though it was an open, fun game to watch.”Saturday’s matches pit Germany against England and Pakistan against the Netherlands.

news covered by dawn sports