Hockey World Cup: Germany down spirited Malaysia (Lead)

Bhubaneswar : A defiant Malaysia gave a tough, spirited fight before Germany managed to carve out a hard-earned 5-3 victory in a Pool D match of the men's hockey World Cup here on Sunday.

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 afer 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.

In the second match of the day, Netherlands outplayed Pakistan 5-1.

For Netherlands, Thierry Brinkman, Valentin Verga, Jeroen Hertzberger, Croon Though, Van Der Weeden scored while Umar Bhutta scored for Pakistan.

Pakistan will now face Belgium in the crossover match, while Netherlands will face Canada on Tuesday.