MALAYSIA’S HOPES OF ADVANCING VIRTUALLY OVER AFTER PAKISTAN DRAW
Malaysia hold Pakistan to a draw but need a miracle to advance
MALAYSIA’S hopes of advancing to the second round of the Hockey World Cup is virtually over after holding Pakistan to 1-1 draw in the Group D match.
Both teams have one point from two matches but Pakistan are in third spot in the group with better goal difference.
Malaysia need to beat Germany in their last group match with a big margin on Sunday if they hope to reach the second round.
Yesterday, it was a match both the teams needed to win as both the teams had lost their opening matches.
Malaysia were trounced 7-0 by Holland while Pakistan lost 1-0 to Germany.
Coach Roelant Oltmans’ men missed a number of chances in the first two quarters.
Malaysia started off aggressively by earning two penalty corners in the first four minutes.
But both Faizal Saari’s low drag flick was well saved by Pakistan goalkeeper Imran Butt.
Malaysia had the best chance to take a lead in the 18th minute.
Mohd Azri Hassan made a through pass to the unmarked Joel van Huizen in the semi-circle, but Joel squandered the chance.
Malaysia kept pressing on the Pakistan defence and earned another two penalty corners in the second quarter but failed to convert.
Pakistan, who gave a good fight to the Germans, however, were not impressive in the first two quarters.
They earned three penalty corners in the first-half but failed to get it right.
Pakistan broke the hearts of the Malaysian team when they took the lead through Muhammad Atiq in the 49th minute.
Atiq collected a through pass before he slammed the ball past keeper S. Kumar.
Malaysia fought back to equalise in the 55th minute when Faizal scored off the seventh penalty corner.
In an earlier match, Germany came back from a goal down to outplay Holland 4-1.
Valentin Verga gave Holland the lead in the 13th minute before Germany turned on the heat to score four goals in 28 minutes.
Mathias Muller equalised in the 30th minute before Lukas Windfeder gave Germany the lead in the 52nd minute.
Marco Miltkau scored the third goal in the 54th minute and Christoper Ruhr completed the rout in the 58th minute.