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Olympic bronze medallist Germany sealed a direct entry into the quarterfinals with a hard-fought 5-3 win over Malaysia in their final Pool D match at the Hockey World Cup in Bhuvneshwar on Sunday.
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The victory helped Germany maintain a 100% win record in the group stage and join two-time champions Australia, Olympic champions Argentina and hosts India in the last eight stage.
Tim Herzbruch and Christopher Ruhr scored a brace each while Marco Miltkau struck the other goal as Germany ran out winners in an eight-goal thriller. All of Malaysia’s goals came from penalty corners with Razie Rahim converting the first and third and Nabil Noor the one in between.
The Asian silver medallist with just one draw and two defeats stand on the brink of exiting the tournament and unless the Netherlands thrash Pakistan by eight or more goals, Malaysia will finish at the bottom of Pool D.
Both teams started well but Germany were more precise with their finishing and scored as many as three goals inside the opening 18 minutes with Herzbruch opening the scoring in the second minute before Ruhr scored twice in four minutes.
But Malaysia bounced back in the second quarter with Rahim and Noor scoring within two minutes of each other before a comical defensive error allowed Miltkau to put Germany ahead by two goals in the 39th minute. The Asian team did not give up and pulled another back through Rahim from their third penalty corner.
But the Germans eventually came out the winner when Herzbruch scored with one minute left to play sending his team into the quarterfinals even as Malaysia neared the edges of exit.
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