Bhubaneswar: Pakistan coach Rehan Butt had dubbed the Kalinga Stadium a lucky ground for them after their arrival in the city for the Men’s Hockey World Cup. But the stadium was not proved that lucky for them this time as they went down to Germany by a solitary goal in their Pool D encounter here, Saturday.
The scorecard might suggest a narrow 1-0 win for Germany, but actually the Asian side were thoroughly outplayed by the dominant Germans. Marco Miltkau scored the only goal of the match in the 36th minute.
Germany started well with a string of vertical revolving passes in the midfield. Christopher Ruhr sent a dangerous cross and Benedikt Furk almost managed to deflect it in the second minute, but custodian Imran Butt came to the rescue.
Germans continued to have lion’s share of possession, while Pakistan tried to play the catch-up game. Germans certainly looked better up front, but Pakistani defenders kept them at bay during the first quarter, which was an intense affair.
Ruhr had the best chance, but both teams were equally tight at the back. Germany had four circle penetrations as compared to Pakistan’s one.
Germany began to assert their supremacy at the start of the second quarter but they were unable to split the opposition defense. Pakistan were excellent in their markings and Germans struggled to be creative enough.
Germany forwards were held off by Pakistan traffic in the 24th and 25th minutes respectively. Pakistan messed up a chance to counter during the end of the second quarter and as a result the match remained goalless at the break.
Pakistan made a cautious beginning after the change of ends. But the Germans marched ahead in typical aggressive fashion. In the process they penetrated Pakistan circle and Miltkau put them 1-0 ahead in the 36th minute.
Pakistan retaliated, but missed a sitter immediately after a minute as Muhammad Zubair was unable to connect the ball at the goalmouth. Thanks to captain Martin Haner, Germany got a penalty corner in the 40th minute, but Mats Grambusch flicked wide.
Pakistan, on the other hand, tried their best to make a comeback during the last part of the third quarter but couldn’t penetrate opposition’s defence with the third quarter finishing 1-0 in Germany’s favour.
The final quarter saw Pakistan trying to make amends and stormed into Germany’s circle on few occasions. But Germany counter attacked and Niklas Wellen’s reverse hit pierced Pakistan’s citadel.
However the video referral went against Germany denying them to double their lead. In spite of being ruthless throughout the match, the Germans had to be satisfied with a narrow victory.
Sporting crowd
Pakistan playing at the Kalinga Stadium reminded their last match against arch-rivals India here at the Champions Trophy way back in 2014 where the visitors had passed lewd remarks to the audience after their victory and were badly booed by the crowd. But the sporting loving crowd here seems to have forgotten that bad incident. They were almost equal in cheering good hockey from both the teams. Germany were the dominant team throughout the match and naturally got the maximum cheer. The crowd was also benevolent to Pakistan whenever they exhibited quality and skillful hockey. It once again proved the fact that why hockey is considered a way of life in Odisha and the crowd proved the line – Sport unites all.