Greenshirts defeats China by 3-2 in the Four-Nation Tournament
Pakistan’s national men’s hockey team made a strong comeback as they defeated Cina by 3-2 in a narrow-fighting game at Four-Nation Tournament which is being played at University College Dublin (UCD), in Dublin, Ireland. In their opening match of the tournament
the Greenshirts had to face a stunning defeat against France by 4-2.
The defeat in the very first game was quite shocking for the team as well as for management because they were defeated by France, which is a relatively a low ranked side in the world rankings. However the Greenshirts showed an improved performance as compared
in their first game against France in which the team committed a lot of mistakes in their attack along with many lapses in their defence.
But against China, they looked an improved side and from the start of the match the Greenshirts controlled the game very fine by making some great moves by attacking the opponent’s goal-post, while in their defence they also looked very clinical as compared
to the first match.
In the first half, the game was tight as both teams created their chances and tried to take the early lead. Pakistan played a mixture of attack and defence in the first half, having in mind their previous defeat. The first half eventually ended at 2-2 to
both sides, despite of some wonderful efforts after the scores were level.
In the second half, the game was even close as compared to the first half and both sides came across difficult situations which was due to defence line's strong holdness. However, the Greenshirts eventually succeeded in scoring the decider of the game which
stood unchanged until the end and after that no more goals were scored. The match concluded at 3-2 to Pakistan. Sohail Abbas, Haseem Khan and Mohammad Zubair were the scorers for Pakistan.
Khawaja Junaid, the manger of the national hockey squad, looked very pleased with the results and also has high expectations from his side. He stated that the players were facing difficulties in adjusting with the European weather conditions which are quite
different from Pakistan. However, the players are adjusting to these tough cold conditions and will get better as the tournament advances. The Greenshirts will play their next game against the hosts, Ireland tomorrow.
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