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The final day of groups stage matches took place in the FIH Men's Hockey World Cup 2018 as former champions Germany took on Malaysia at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
The two sides from the Group D had different motivations going into the encounter today evening.
Malaysia, who stood at the bottom of the Group D standings with one point from two games, was hoping to get an upset win over the table-toppers Germany which would put them in a crossover position.
Germany, on the other hand, who were unbeaten heading into this match, needed just a point from this match to ensure their top position in the group and seal their spot in the quarterfinals.
The Germans started off on a bright note with an early goal after a botched penalty corner attempt. Germany did well to recover quickly and Timm Herzbruch received the ball inside the ball and pushed it into the top corner for the first goal of the match.
Christopher Ruhr added another goal to make it 2-0 for Germany at the end of the first quarter.
Ruhr added the third goal with a stellar solo effort to put Germany in a comfortable position. However, the Malaysians stepped up their game and cut the lead down to one with a couple of well-worked penalty corner conversions.
Rahim Razie scored one goal and created another with a smart deflection by Noor Nabil as the first half ended 3-2.
Marco Miltkau got his third goal of the tournament after scoring a great deflection after Niklas Wellen's cross at the goalmouth.
Rahim Razie was on target again for Malaysia as he scored after a strong drag flick as Malaysia stayed in touching distance of the Germans on the scoreboard.
After a late penalty corner for Malaysia, Germans launched a quick counter-attack as Timm Herzbruch scored his second goal of the night to make it 5-3 on the night as Germany cemented their spot atop the Pool D standings after three wins out of three matches.
We take a look at the three standout players from today evening's fixture.
#3 Timm Herzbruch
German forward Timm Herzbruch opened the scoring in the second minute of the match for the former World champions with a well-taken push into the top corner after a failed penalty corner attempt.
He continued to be active in the attack making good runs past the Malaysian defence into the attacking circle.
He bookended his performance late in the match with another goal as he deflected the pass from Wellen after a quick counter attack by the Germans after a foiled penalty corner by the Malaysians.
#2 Rahim Razie
Rahim Razie, the Malaysian defender had a tough time in the backline dealing with the German attacking firepower in the initial quarters of the match.
However, he was the designated drag-flicker for Malaysia and did well during their penalty corner attempts.
After being down 0-3 in the second quarter, Rahim Razie got one goal back for Malaysia with a quick hit after his initial attempt was saved by the German keeper Tobias Walter.
Razie created the second goal for Malaysia after a swift move that saw his disguised flick being deflected past the keeper into the net as the Asian side cut the lead down to just one goal at the end of the first half.
Razie added another goal in the third quarter when he slotted his drag-flick past Walter with a clean strike to get the deficit down to one again after Germans had made it 4-2.
#1 Christopher Ruhr
German attacker Christopher Ruhr was at his lethal best against the feeble Malaysian defence in the first two quarters of the match.
He kept making dangerous runs past the defence and had a couple of chances before opening his account.
Ruhr capitalised on a mistake by the Malaysian backline and intercepted a pass to get inside the circle.
He created space for himself and then finished a stunning reverse hit into the left top corner of the Malaysian goal past a helpless Subramiam Kumar.
At the start of the second quarter, a sleek attacking move by the German midfield let Ruhr run past a couple of defenders.
He positioned himself inside the circle with a good touch and unleashed a powerful low shot that went into the bottom corner of the goal after hitting the post.
Head to Sportskeeda to check out the schedule for the upcoming matches.
