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The Indian men’s hockey team registered an impressive 3-2 win in a thrilling encounter against defending World Champions Germany in the FIH Hockey Pro League 2022-23 match at the Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium on Friday.
Harmanpreet Singh (30+) and Sukhjeet Singh (32′ and 43′) helped the hosts score three goals while Paul-Philipp Kaufmann (45′) and Michel Struthoff (58′) scored two for Germany as India won the match 3-2.
Earlier, India started this season of the league with two victories, winning 4-3 and 7-4 against New Zealand followed by a 2-3 loss and a 2-2 (3-1 shoot out) win against Spain in the home games played in October-November last year.
Resuming their home games this year, India began with a good performance against Germany. Despite Germany creating two consecutive PCs in the first two quarters of the match, the hosts held their nerves to defend well restricting Germany to score a goal.
In the later part of the second quarter, forward player Abhishek helped the hosts to finally get some momentum with his efforts in the circle. Earlier, off-target attempts from striker Gurjant Singh and Dilpreet Singh were put away by German keeper Alexander Stadler.
India earned their first PC of the match when Abhishek in his tackle surged inside the striking circle during a German infringement. In the 30th minute of the game, India got the much-needed 1-0 lead as Harmanpreet picked up a good injection by Hardik Singh to beautifully put it away into the right corner of the post.
At half-time, India were leading Germany 1-0 and they continued to build on it in the third quarter of the second half. In the 32nd minute of the game, Sukhjeet helped India score another goal as he deflected a brilliant pass which came from Jarmanpreet Singh from the 25m mark to score the second goal in quick succession.
Just 11 minutes later in the 43rd minute, India scored their third goal of the match as a long pass from the midfield came from Manpreet Singh to the striking circle which was well picked by the 21-year-old Selvam Karthi who then assisted Sukhjeet to score his second goal of the match.
The hosts were successful in keeping the German attack at bay with their strong defence and good sync between the midfield and forward line. However, just 2 minutes later, Paul-Philipp managed to score a goal for the visitors with the assistance of Elian Mazkour in the 45th minute of the match.
India were looking to play out the final quarter by keeping possession. However, with just over two minutes left in the final quarter, the momentum swung in Germany’s favour as Struthoff deflected a powerful slap pass into the circle by Hannes Müller to score the second goal for Germany.
With just 40 seconds left in the game, India were awarded a penalty stroke as a shot towards the empty German goal by Dilpreet Singh struck Martin Zwicker on the foot. India failed to pounce on that opportunity as the penalty stroke was missed high by Harmanpreet.
Nonetheless, the penalty miss did not cost India much as they held on to the 3-2 lead and earned the well-deserved three points.
Sukhjeet Singh was awarded player of the match and said: “Great to win the first game back after the world cup. Really want to thank the crowd for the huge support, this performance would not have been possible without them.”
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