London: Germany’s stoic defence withstood a series of raids by the Netherlands as the defending champions retained their men’s hockey Olympic gold by carving out a 2-1 victory in the finals late on Saturday night.
Jan Phillip Rabente left a stamp of his brilliance to score twice to give Germany the crucial edge.
Compact defence on both sides kept the initial play confined to the midfield before the Netherlands mounted a series of attacks and German goalkeeper Max Weinhold had to come out to block a couple of shots in the goalmouth.
Rabente tilted the scales in Germany’s favour when he opened the scoring two minutes before half time by dribbling past two defenders in the circle and then beating the Dutch goalkeeper Jaap Stockmann with a flick that ended in the right side of the net.
Germany’s key player Christopher Zeller was at a loss of words after winning his second Olympic gold medal.
“It was a big night I am so happy right now I just don’t know what to say. We did it and it feels unbelievable,” Zeller said after the game. (PTI)
