Valencia (Spain) June 27 (IANS) Reigning Olympic gold medallists Germany outclassed India 4-0 in their opening match of the Six Nations Hockey tournament here on Monday.
Fresh from a silver-medal winning performance at the Champions Trophy in London, the Indians with regular skipper Sardar Singh back into the side, looked a shadow of their self in the match against Germany.
The Germans started attacking from as early as the fifth minute when Mats Grambusch got his team to a 1-0 lead before extending the lead to 2-0 in the 10th minute.
Already in the backfoot, India tried hard in the second quarter only to concede a penalty corner which experienced midfielder Moritz Furste converted successfully to take a 3-0 lead and put the Germans in the driver's seat heading into half time.
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India came back well denying any more chances in the third quarter but the dying minutes of the fourth quarter witnessed another penalty corner being converted successfully by Lukas Windfeder to wrap up the match 4-0 in favour of the Germans.
On Tuesday, the Indians will take on minnows Ireland.
--IANS
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