England fall to Germany in crucial Quarter Final

• England lose 2-0 against London 2012 Olympic Champions Germany in the Quarter Finals of the Champions Trophy.
• England lose Chris Griffiths and David Condon to sickness bug.
• Head Coach Bobby Crutchley acknowledges impact of diminished squad, but makes no excuses for the outcome.
• England to face Argentina in 5th-8th classification match on Saturday at 0600; subject to FIH scheduling.

2014 Hero Champions Trophy - Bhubaneswar, India. 

After topping Pool A,  the Quarter Final stage of the 2014 Champions Trophy ended in bitter disappointment for England as they fell to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of the world number three side Germany. Playing with two fewer outfield players following a bout of sickness in the squad, England conceded two goals in the closing moments of the second and fourth quarters; Captain Moritz Fürste and Christopher Rühr scoring a goal each to take their side into the Semi Finals. England will now face Argentina on Saturday at 0600 [subject to FIH scheduling] as they battle it out in the fifth to eighth classification matches.

Earlier in the day Australia booked their place in the Semi Finals with a 4-2 victory over Argentina and in the first game of the day Pakistan pulled off the shock of the tournament beating Pool B winners and world number two side the Netherlands 4-2 to claim their top four place.

Germany forced a series of penalty corners in the opening quarter of the match but a combination of good defending from Dan Fox and some outstanding goalkeeping from FIH Goalkeeper of the Year nominee George Pinner kept the scores level as they denied Moritz Fürste on four separate occasions. England's best chances came from a Sam Ward deflection which flashed just wide of the post and a Nick Catlin reverse stick strike that flew over the bar when the Holcombe man might have had more time than he realised.

England started brightly in the second quarter. Catlin and skipper Barry Middleton swapped passes and opened up the German defence but they were unable to get the shot away. Catlin had another reverse stick effort deflected over the bar but it was Germany who went into the break in the ascendancy. Fürste finally got the better of Pinner with a rocket penalty corner into the roof of the net to make it 1-0.

The third quarter was nip and tuck as the two sides battled for the all-important next goal. Jackson couldn't quite set up Ward in the opening exchanges and at the other end Pinner was called upon to keep out Florian Fuchs and former East Grinstead player, Mats Grambusch also went close. The half ended with a yellow card for Timur Oruz for a foul on Jackson, meaning the Germans would start the final 15 minutes a man down.

England went all out in the final quarter to rescue the game but Nicolas Jacobi stood firm to glove away a Jackson penalty corner with Mark Gleghorne unable to get the rebound under control. The same two players went head to head again with another penalty corner but with Jackson this time going low, Jacobi was up to the job once again, getting a foot to the ball to keep it out. With two minutes left on the clock, Germany sealed the win. Grambusch found some space in the circle and cut it back across goal where Christopher Rühr pounced to lift the ball over Pinner to send Germany into the semi-finals.

Speaking after the match England Team Manager Andy Halliday explained the reason for England being two outfield players down during the game: “David Condon and Chris Griffiths have both been suffering from sickness over the last 24 hours and neither were able to leave the hotel today. It's extremely frustrating because we have been meticulous in taking every precaution to try and prevent illness throughout the trip.”

England Head Coach Bobby Crutchley

On the result and the performance: “We're very disappointed with the result, I thought we lacked our normal high intensity out there today. Maybe playing with two fewer players affected that, however we are not looking to make excuses for the overall outcome. We controlled possession for good periods of the game, but came up against a resolute German defence and a team that always threaten on the counter attack. We still created corner opportunities and chances, but today were unable to convert them into goals.”

Looking ahead to Argentina: “We now need to regroup and with a rest day tomorrow we can recover and recharge our batteries and hopefully be back up to full strength for Saturday's game against Argentina where we will be looking to reverse the score line from our defeat back in June at the World Cup. They are a side who are always strong on the counter attack and they defend with numbers behind the ball.”

England will be back in action against Argentina on Saturday at 0600 [subject to FIH scheduling]; all matches are being shown live on Sky Sports.

Germany will be playing alongside England in London next Summer from 21-30 August at the 2015 EuroHockey Nations Championships on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Tickets for the event are available from www.eurohockey2015.co.uk

Notes to Editors

Champions Trophy: the tournament - Source: FIH

The front runners

Australia are the most successful men's team with 13 titles to their name. The Kookaburras have dominated the competition for the past decade, not only are they the defending champions, having won the event in 2012 on home turf at Melbourne, they also won the previous four tournaments. Four titles behind them are Germany who have won the tournament nine times, with the Dutch winning eight times. Along with Pakistan three times, and Spain once in 2004, these are the only teams to have been crowned Champions Trophy winners.

Bhubaneswar, India – the hosts

The opening day of the tournament (Saturday 6 December) will feature all eight teams taking to the field on India's first newly built Olympic standard pink and blue hockey pitch in the Kalinga Stadium.  The 5,000 seater stadium also serves as the home ground for Hero Hockey India League franchise, Kalinga Lancers.

Qualification for this year's edition was as follows:

India qualified as host nation and their fourth place in the 2012 Champions Trophy; Australia are the defending champions; the Netherlands were runners-up in the 2012 Champions Trophy; Pakistan and Belgium qualify by virtue of their third and fifth respective placings in the 2012 Champions Trophy; Argentina were winners of the 2012 Champions Challenge 1, while England and Germany were given invitational places.

The future of the Champions Trophy

From 2016, the qualification criteria as set out by FIH will be slightly modified to accommodate the Hockey World League results. Qualifying teams will comprise: the host, the 2012 Olympic Champions, the 2014 World Cup winners, 2015 World League champions, the winners of the 2014 Champions Challenge and a team nominated by FIH Executive Board. If any team qualifies twice under the criteria, then FIH Executive Board will invite a further team.  The format of the competition will also revert to a six team round robin followed by classification matches.

Broadcast information

All England's matches are being shown live on Sky Sports.

Images

Credit World Sport Pics / England Hockey

Contact Information

For all media enquiries prior to and during the event please contact Jennie Byass, Communications Officer on 07850 907320, jennie.byass@englandhockey.co.uk

About England Hockey

England Hockey is the national governing body for hockey in England.  It is responsible for the governance and development of the sport in this country. England Hockey is also the 'nominated country' for Great Britain.  Consequently, it is responsible for preparing the Great Britain hockey teams for the Olympic Games, on behalf of and with the support of the other home nations, Scotland and Wales.

UK Sport

UK Sport is the nation's high performance sports agency responsible for the strategic investment of a record £355million of National Lottery and Exchequer funding in Olympic and Paralympic sports preparing for Rio 2016. Hockey has received £15.5million to prepare teams for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games to build on the bronze medal the Women's team won at London 2012.

About NOW: Pensions, principal sponsor of the England men's hockey team

NOW: Pensions is a multi-employer trust. The investments are managed by NOW: Pensions Investments, a subsidiary of ATP in Denmark, and the administration is carried out by Paymaster, an established UK third party administrator.

 NOW: Pensions is committed to developing a better workplace pension provision in the UK by offering a simple, high quality, cost efficient and systematically risk managed pension product that delivers better retirement savings for UK employees. With over 45 years' experience providing Denmark's working population with stable and consistent pensions returns, NOW: Pensions is set to transfer the knowledge acquired in Denmark to the UK pension market.

 For more information go to www.nowpensions.com or follow them on Twitter, @NOWPensions.