Bhubaneswar.December 09: Germany carved out a hard-earned 5-3 victory over Malaysia in a Pool D match of the Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup at the Kalinga Stadium here on Sunday.
With this win, Germany topped the Pool D with nine points from three games and sealed a direct berth in the quarterfinal.
Christopher Ruhr (14th, 18th minutes) and Timm Herzbruch (2nd, 59th) struck twice each for the title contenders from Europe while Marco Miltkau (39th) scored a field goal with an excellent finish off a fast, superbly orchestrated counter-attack.
All the Malaysian goals came from penalty corners. The veteran Razie Rahim (26th, 42nd) bagged a brace while Nabil Noor (28th) scored with a deflection after a clever penalty corner variation.
The Germans thus earned a direct entry into the quarter-finals as they topped Pool D with the full nine points from their three matches.
The Malaysians crashed out of the tournament as they finished at the bottom of the group with a mere one point.
Prasanta Patnaik