Rourkela: The Indian men’s hockey team registered an impressive 3-2 win against reigning World Champions Germany in the FIH Hockey Pro League 2022-23 match at the Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium, here on Friday.
Goals were scored by Harmanpreet Singh (30+) and Sukhjeet Singh (32′ and 43′) for India while Paul-Philipp Kaufmann (45′) and Michel Struthoff (58′) scored for Germany.
India had begun this season of the prestigious league with a 4-3 and 7-4 win against New Zealand followed by a 2-3 loss and 2-2 (3-1 SO) win against Spain in the home games played in October-November last year.
The hosts resumed their home games in style with a clinical performance against the Germans even though it was the World Champions who got off to a strong start with back-to-back PCs being created in the first two quarters. However, India held their nerves in PC defence to keep a clean slate.
Striker Abhishek’s efforts in the circle in the later part of the second quarter finally brought the momentum India was vying for. Up until then, stray attempts by strikers Gurjant Singh and Dilpreet Singh in the initial minutes of the game were put away by German keeper Alexander Stadler.
Abhishek’s quick thinking in his tackle to surge ahead inside the striking circle forced a German infringement that earned the home team their first PC of the match. Harmanpreet Singh was top class in his attempt, picking up a good injection by Hardik Singh to fiercely put it away into the right corner of the post giving India the much-needed 1-0 lead in the 30th minute.
