The German national hockey team made a strong comeback against Australia at the World Cup in India. In the final, the DHB selection meets Belgium.
Thanks to Niklas Wellen’s goal a few seconds before the end of regular time, the German national hockey team made it spectacularly into the final. The team of national coach André Henning beat Australia 4:3 (0:2) in the semi-finals on Friday (January 27th, 2023) and can continue to hope for the first World Cup gold in 17 years.
“We believe in each other“Wellen said after the game: “The fact that we shot it in regular time is crazy, the team is crazy. We’re not done here.”
The other three goals for the selection of the German Hockey Association (DHB) in Bhubaneswar scored the native Argentinian Gonzalo Peillat (42nd minute/51st/58th). Jeremy Hayward (11th), Nathan Ephraums (26th) and Blake Govers (57th) were successful for the world number one Australia.
In the final on Sunday (2.30 p.m. CET), Germany will face defending champions Belgium or European champions the Netherlands. By reaching the final, Germany has won its first World Cup medal since 2010 (silver). In 2002 and 2006, the DHB selection already won the title.
Stadler initially prevents deficit
The German team finally found themselves in one after a strong last-minute comeback against England shootout-Krimi qualified for the semi-finals (4:3). In this game his team “mental strength” proven, explained Henning shortly before kick-off. Despite the nerve-wracking quarter-finals, his team “energy“.
After just one minute, however, Australia had their first good opportunity with a penalty corner, but keeper Alexander Stadler made a safe save. Germany got into the game better and better, but couldn’t get through against the three-time world champions. After another penalty corner, Australia finally took the lead through Hayward, and a little later Stadler prevented the next goal.
Peillat scores for the DHB team
However, the DHB team was not deterred by this and repeatedly put Australia under pressure in the second quarter. But Tom Grambusch after a penalty corner and Christopher Rühr failed to keeper Andrew Charter. After a counterattack, Ephraums raised.
After half-time, Germany continued to look for a way forward, but was initially unsuccessful, and Stadler again had to intervene decisively at the back. After penalty corners, Peillat finally rewarded the offensive efforts of the DHB team and thus compensated for Australia’s renewed lead by Govers. Wellen made the last-minute victory perfect.