Russia beats Scotland by 4-2 in FIH Champions Challenge II
The men’s hockey team of Russia won the day two match of the 2011 FIH Champions Challenge II against Scotland by two goals, 4-2 being held in Lillie on July 03, 2011.
Eugene Connolly, the Manager of the Scottish team, was of the opinion that they demonstrated impressive hockey. However, they failed to avail all the chances and lost the game.
He stated, “I felt we were the better side, but after totally dominating the first 20 minutes we found ourselves a goal down. Then we did very well to get back to level terms at 2-2, but conceded a very poor third goal. To the players` credit we played a
lot of good hockey, but didn`t take our chances when it mattered.”
It is worth mentioning here that the Russians won the first game of the event while Scots lost the second consecutive game.
Both the teams started the game at fast pace, but it was Scotland that dominated the first 20 minutes of play and carried out plenty of attacks. However, all the attacking shots went wide or got denied. Scottish players, including Willie Marshall and Dan
Coultas, failed to score goals in their respective efforts.
In a rebound effort, Pavel Golubev of Russia took the ball away and smashed a powerful shot into net. The Scottish goal-keeper failed to judge the ball. It was the only successful effort from the two teams in the first 35 minutes.
In the second half of play, both the teams landed on the field in a cautious way. However, the Russians dominated the field with the ball possession and doubled the tally in the very first minute of the play. Aleksandr Platonov notched the second goal through
a field attempt and put his side ahead on the scoreboard.
After conceding two goals, the Scots at last awakened and marked a couple of goals in the a short span of 90 seconds. In the first attempt, Michael Christie converted a short-corner in the 43rd minute of the match and decreased
the lead down to a single goal. Alan Forsyth in the very next minute took the ball inside the 25-yard line and scooped it into the Russian goal to tie the knots at two-all.
The tie-up was enough to ignite the game-plan of Russian players who started their fast and furious game. In the 52nd minute of the match, Nikolay Komarov managed a goal from the field and once again put Russia ahead onto the score-chart. With
five minutes left, Dimitry Azarov took the opportunity, converted a penalty-stroke into a successful goal and sealed the victory for Russia at 4-2.
Tags: