Australia and India play off for the Bronze medal in Bhubaneswar.
Germany and Pakistan are the teams to play off in Sunday’s final at the Hero Hockey Champions Trophy in Bhubaneswar. Host nation India will face world champions Australia in the Bronze medal match. Saturday’s semi-finals saw the Olympic champions from Germany grabbing a narrow 3-2 victory against Australia with Pakistan winning 4-3 against India.
SF1: Germany v Australia 3-2 (0-2)
Germany ended Australia’s lengthy reign as Champions Trophy holders as they eliminated the Kookaburras in a thrilling semi-final tussle in Bhubaneswar.
The Aussies have held the title since 2008, winning five successive titles, while the Markus Weise’s had not won a medal since Melbourne in 2009 but they continue to grow as this tournament progresses. They built a 3-0 lead by the early stages of the second half and while Australia fought back, they had just enough in the tank to get over the line.
The Germans got off to a dream start with two goals in the first nine minutes. Timur Oruz got a lovely feathered touch to a diagonal pass from Lukas Windfeder. Mats Grambusch then extedned the lead when the ball bounced back to him after the Kookaburras struggled to clear their lines.
His powerful shot took a deflection off Fergus Kavanagh’s foot to give the Aussie goalkeeper Andrew Charter no chance of blocking the ball. Australia did have their moments with Jeremy Hayward shooting wide while Nicolas Jacobi got a brilliant diving stick out to deny Russell Ford a simple tap-in. It remained 2-0 until half-time thanks to a superb Moritz Fürste save on the post from a Chris Ciriello penalty corner flick – a block the German captain gleefully celebrated.
A minute after half-time, Germany were 3-0 up as Florian Fuchs picked up the pieces when Charter had denied Martin Zwicker at close quarters. Fuchs dodged away from the goalkeeper before unleashing a beautiful punch shot into the roof of the net from a narrow angle.
Australia duly launched their fightback and had a lifeline in the 34th minute when Ciriello dragged home his fourth goal of the competition. And they were right back in the mix when Nick Budgeon smashed home seven minutes later following a mad scramble in front of the German goal.
It set up a grandstand finish in which Australia piled forward in numbers but they could not take advantage from a corner and a number of goalmouth melees, leaving Germany to celebrate.
India v Pakistan 3-4 (1-1)
Pakistan grabbed a narrow 4-3 win over India to qualify for Sunday’s final of the Hero Hockey Champions Trophy in Bhubaneswar thanks to a late strike from Muhammad Arslan Qadir. India now play off for the Bronze medal against world champions Australia who lost their semi-final 3-2 to Germany.
Pakistan started in fast fashion, Muhammad Dilber drawing a fine save from PR Sreejesh while Muhammad Umar Bhutta’s effort slipped just past the post. But India replied in kind and went 1-0 up when Sardar Singh took a quick free from which Chandanda Thimmaiah to win the game’s opening penalty corner. Gurjinder Singh fired home low for 1-0. Pakistan used their video referral on this decision but the goal was confirmed by the video umpire which got the party started in the packed Kalinga Stadium.
Muhammad Rizwan Senior let slide another huge chance for Pakistan but they did get back on terms when Muhammad Arslan Qadir got a brilliant touch to Ammad Shakeel Butt ‘s cross to make it 1-1, ramping the ball into the roof of the net to silence the crowd.
The third quarter saw Qadir’s cross being tipped in by Muhammad Waqas to put Pakistan ahead 2-1 when both teams were reduced to ten players after yellow card suspensions. India failed to strike back a short moment later when VR Raghunath’s penalty corner attempts went wide but Dharamvir Singh did get them back level at 2-2 with a lovely finish after Akashdeep’s great approach work.
Muhammad Irfan responded within a minute with his fourth goal of the tournament to make it 3-2 to Pakistan. But Thimmaiah brought the crowd back to live when he applied a lovely deflection to tie things up at 3-3 but Qadir sealed the victory with his goal 90 minutes before the final whistle to grab the result to huge exultation from the Pakistani side.
5-8 classification
Earlier, the 5-8 classification matches saw the Netherlands defeating Belgium 4-2 in a shoot-out competition. The Red Lions had come back from being 2-0 down, the equaliser was a last minute goal scored by Tom Boon. Afterwards Argentina secured their spot in the 5th place payoff match with a narrow 2-1 win over England thanks to a late Gonzalo Peillat strike. While the Netherlands and Argentina will play off for fifth place on Sunday, Belgium meet England in the 7th place playoff.
