Germany needed a win to have a chance to advance to the quarter- finals and immediately got on the scoreboard, with a little help from an Egyptian defender deflecting in his own goal an innocent looking cross. Egypt were saved once by their post but Germany doubled their tally in the 19th minute by Niklas Bruns, left with an easy deflection over the line after a quick exchange of passes in the circle. The match was played without much passion in the midday heat. The Germans were controlling the proceedings but did not exert themselves too much and the score was still 2-0 going into the break.
Germany missed a couple of chances in the opening minutes of second period and were again off target on two early penalty-corners. Christopher Rühr widened the gap in the 42nd minute but the Germans continued to produce a half-hearted effort, playing at a pedestrian pace. They nevertheless added 3 more goals by Mathias Müller, Christopher Rühr and Niklas Bruns to finish with a 6-0 scoreline, virtually insuring their quarter-final berth unless Pakistan can produce a spectacularly large win over Belgium.
Post the match, Germany Coach Andre Henning said “The players did not play upto the mark on the first half but they gained momentum in the second session and the team won with such a huge margin. While the pressure on us was huge after we lost our first match to Belgium but we did not lose focus and worked on ways of improving our game which has paid off. We are entering the knock out phase so while the team is in pressure to perform but also at the meantime the boys are working on playing good hockey and are trying to better themselves as a team with each game”.
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