India registered a comfortable 3-0 win over Germany at the hands of Harmanpreet’s brace in the FIH Pro League. Hockey News – Times of India

Bhubaneshwar: Vice-Captain Harmanpreet Singh As continued his goal-scoring spree with the brace Indian men’s hockey team beat an inexperienced Germany 3-0 in the first match of a two-leg tie to extend their lead in FIH Pro League Standings on Thursday.
Harmanpreet converted two penalty corners for India in the 18th and 27th minutes, while Abhishek Scored another set piece in the 45th minute.
With more than half a dozen members of Germany’s 22-man squad making their senior debuts here, the difference between the two sides was clearly visible.

With this win, India have consolidated their position at the top of the table with 24 points from 11 matches, while Germany are second with 17 points from nine matches.
Both the teams will face each other again in the second match of the match being played at Kalinga Stadium on Friday.
Indians got off to a good start and got a penalty corner in the first quarter but Jugraj SinghA penalty corner attempt was blocked by the German defense and the resulting rebound was hit by a wide shot by Nilakanta Sharma.
India had quite the possession in the first quarter, but the forwardline was not clinical enough to press the opportunity.
India continued the trend in the second quarter and took the lead in the 18th minute through no one else. Harmanpreet Brilliantly executed dragflick from the penalty corner.
India soon earned another penalty corner but this time Harmanpreet was denied by Gearman’s goalkeeper Alexander Stadler.
But Harmanpreet doubled India’s lead in three minutes from half-time, wrongly firing Stadler from another set piece.
The Indians kept up the pressure after the change of ends and created plenty of scoring opportunities but the young German defense remained tenacious but was also guilty of conceding too many penalty corners.
And from one such occasion, Abhishek missed Harmanpreet’s variation to give India a comfortable 3-0 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Minutes into the fourth and final quarter, Germany secured another penalty corner but this time Stadler avoided Harmanpreet’s attempt.
The Germans gave a good account of themselves in the last 15 minutes but they gave the Indians too many chances in the form of penalty corners which cost them dearly.
Germany lost eight penalty corners but failed to score a single penalty corner in the full 60 minutes.