OLYMPICS / Barcelona 1992: German revenge: Hockey

Great Britain. . .0

Germany. . . . . .2

GERMANY won the repeat of the Seoul hockey final against the Olympic champions, Britain, in a thrilling pool game last night when the cool finishing of Carsten Fischer at penalty corners succeeded where his British counterpart, Rob Hill, failed.

In a tense opening period both sides showed their willingness to attack and Britain might have drawn first blood in the first minute as Russell Garcia took on the German defence to force a penalty corner. Hill's piledriver was on target, but the German goalkeeper Michael Knauth was equal to the challenge.

Germany's first worthwhile opportunity came in the sixth minute when Fischer's well-disguised penalty corner shot was deflected for a harmless long corner. His next, a minute later, was too high, but there was no denying Fischer from his third penalty corner in the 16th minute.

Fischer set up the second in the 30th minute, his aerial pass to Jan-Peter Tewes catching the defence unawares and, with Sean Rowlands only able to get a touch to the cross, Michael Hilgers scored.

Three minutes after the interval, Sam Martin forced a penalty corner, but Hill's muffed flick was blocked before breaking to Jason Laslett, whose hurried shot went wide.

GREAT BRITAIN: S Rowlands (Havant); S Martin (Holywood 87), P Bolland (Hounslow); J Potter (Hounslow), J Laslett (Teddington), R Hill (Havant); S Batchelor (East Grinstead), R Garcia (Havant), S Kerly (Canterbury), R Clift (East Grinstead, capt), J Lee (East Grinstead). Substitutes: D Williams (Havant) for Batchelor, 36min; R Thompson (Hounslow) for Lee, 54; J Shaw (Southgate) for Garcia, 54.

GERMANY: M Knauth; C Fischer; J-P Tewes, V Fried (capt), K Michler; C Blunck, M Metz, A Keller; S Meinhardt, M Hilgers, A Becker. Substitutes: S Saliger for Meinhardt, 50; S Tewes for Hilgers, 57; O Kurtz for Becker, 67.

Umpires: P Van Beneden (Bel) and A Renaud (Fr).