Two-time champions Germany advanced to the next round of the 2018 FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup after defeating the last edition silver medalist Netherlands 4-1 in their second Pool D match.
Although the Netherlands took an early lead through Valentin Verga in the thirteenth minute, Germany fought back bravely and scored through Mathias Muller, Lukas Windfeder, Marco Miltkau, and Christopher Ruhr to register their second consecutive win in the pool and moved an inch closer towards booking a direct quarter-final berth in the World Cup.
Now Netherlands are on three points whereas Germany stands atop of Pool D with 6 points from 2 victories. Pakistan and Malaysia are on one point each but the former are placed third owing to better goal difference.
In the battle between the World No.4 Netherlands and World No 6 Germany, the Dutch played the aggressive match in the start who were joined by the Germans soon. Dutch Captain Billy Baker had the real scoring opportunity in the eighth minute but was vehemently blocked by the German keeper Tobias Walter.
As the Germans continued to press harder and at the stroke of the first quarter secured penalty corners, the second of which resulted in a superb goal by Muller.
The Netherlands, who got four penalty corners in a span of two minutes, wasted all their chances and as the game moved on Germans grew fiercer and scored from their fourth penalty corner to turning the score line 3-1.
