AUCKLAND : Spain edged past Pakistan 4-2 to hand them over their second successive defeat which knocked them out of medal contention as well as first four positions in the Champions Trophy hockey tournament here on Monday at North Harbour hockey stadium.Pakistan beaten by England 2-1 in their opening match will now face masters of the game world champions Australia in their third match tomorrow, Tuesday. Pakistan suffered a big blow in the second half when penalty corner shooter Sohail Abbas received a major injury on his left jaw as the ball struck on his face after deflecting to his stick. Sohail will miss the rest of the tournament and will take a month to recover.
With medal hopes vanished in the air, what left is for Green shirts for a face saving act is to endeavour to qualify for next year’s Champions Trophy in Australia by finishing at fifth place.
In the other three matches ,Australia stayed at top beating England 4-1, Holland defeated Germany 3-2 as the second highest team as New Zealand routed South Korea 6-1.
Pakistan appeared a decent opponent till the early session of the second half by pulling one back on two occasions to lock the score at 1-1 and then 2-2, going down 2-1 at the end of first half.
Things turned bad to worse for Pakistan midway through the second session when Spanish side ripped through Pakistani defence to add two more goals through Pau Quemada in space of nine minutes to shatter the high degree confidence of their rivals, dashing away their hopes for equalizing the score.
Pakistan ace penalty corner shooter suffered a grave face injury in the final stages of the play, ruling him out of action for one month. The absence of Sohail will weaker Pakistan’s prospects in remaining matches of the tournament.
Spain caused panic for a stable Pakistani team as early as in the 2nd minute of the play when Captain Freixa Santi converted the first short corner after seizing a goalkeeper deflection. Pakistan made desperate efforts for hunting the equalizer and made it 1-1 when forward Shakeel Abbasi struck brilliance in a field attack after receiving a superb pass from agile forward Haseem Khan.
With Pakistani forward repeating their chronical problem of missing the ideal sitters, Spanish side restored edge through Gabriel Dabanch who scored with a reverse flick in the 25th minute. Before the close of the first half both the teams were reduced to ten members each when Pakistan’s Waseem Ahmad and Spain’Roc oliva were sent out of field for their rough play.
Six minutes into the second half Pakistan team made their last most impressive effort by locking the score at 2-2 when Sohail Abbas converted the second penalty corner into a goal. In an action packed nine minutes stint, Spain enhanced their lead at 3-2 for the much disappointment of Pakistani side, off their fourth short corner through Pau Quemada in the 57th minute and dumped their struggling opponents with the addition of their fourth goal.
Pau emerged as the centre of attraction by hitting home team’s fourth goal off the 6th and last penalty corner in the 65th minute. Pakistani side missed fourth and last short corner, two minutes before the final whistle. (APP)