Bhubaneswar: Olympic bronze medallist Germany sailed into the quarterfinals with an all-win record, thus making an end to Malaysia’s journey at the 2018 Men’s Hockey World Cup as the World No.6 team thrashed their Asian opponents 5-3 in their final Pool D encounter at Kalinga Stadium here, Sunday.
Germany finished their pool engagements with a maximum of nine points from three games. Tim Herzbruch (2nd, 59th minutes) and Christopher Ruhr (14th, 18th) scored two goals each while Marco Miltkau (39th) struck the other one for the Germans.
Malaysia’s all three goals came from penalty corner conversions by Razie Rahim (26th, 42nd) and Nabil Noor (28th).
By virtue of this win, the Germans joined two-time champions Australia, Olympic champions Argentina and hosts India in the quarterfinals. On the other hand, Malaysia became the final team, after Spain (Pool A), Ireland (Pool B) and South Africa (Pool C), to be knocked out of the tournament.
Both the teams had their chances in the game but it was Germany who were more precise with their finishing skills. The Germans started brightly and raced to a 3-0 lead inside 18 minutes through goals from Herzbruch and Ruhr.
German forward Herzbruch opened the scoring in the second minute with a well-taken push into the top corner after a failed penalty corner attempt. He continued to be active in the attack making good runs past the Malaysian defence into the attacking circle.
But the Malaysians tried to make a valiant fightback and managed to reduce the margin to 2-3 in the 28th minute through goals from Rahim and Noor.
The clinical Germans capitalised on Malaysia’s defensive errors when Miltkau deflected in a Niklas Wellen’s perfect lay-off in the 39th minute. The Asian team did not give up and narrowed down the gap to 3-4 when Rahim converted another penalty corner.
However, it was Germany who had the last laugh when Herzbruch scored, second time in the game, from a counter attack just a minute from the final hooter to dash any hopes of Malaysia’s comeback. Herzbruch deflected the pass from Wellen after a quick counter attack by the Germans after a foiled penalty corner by the Malaysians.
Both the teams had numerous scoring opportunities in the form of penalty corners. While Malaysia earned as many as eight penalty corners, the Germans secured seven in the match.
