Pakistan saw off a second-half fightback by Germany to post a 5-2 win in the 25thChampions Trophy at Amstelveen today.
It was Pakistan's second victory in four matches as they maintained their unbeaten run in this six-nation event,having drawn two.
Germany, who gave an improved display today, suffered their fourth straight defeat.
Pakistan, after taking a 3-0 lead in the first-half, turned complacent before tightening up in time to record a fluent win.
Goals by Kashif Jawad (9th, 25th), Rehan Butt (16th), Sohail Abbas (65th) and Salim Khalid (67th), set up thePakistani success, while for Germany, Benedikt Sperling (43rd) and Benjamin Kopp (46th) found the target.
The inexperienced Germans were bamboozled by the dazzling individual play of the Pakistanis who generatedappreciable pace early on and used the wings to stretch the defence.
The Germans, forced on the defensive for much of the first-half, enjoyed a bit of freedom in the second as thePakistanis played rather loosely.
The early Pakistani onslaughts saw Jawad sweeping home a Butt pass from a counter-attack. Then Butt got into the actwhen Mudassar Ali set up a goal with a long ball and a little later, Jawad completed acounter-attack by converting a pass from Sameer Hussain.
Immediately on restart, the Germans struck twice in quick succession. Sperling scored off a Kopp pass and thenKopp let fly from the top of the circle following a counter-attack that caught the Pakistani defence on the wrongfoot.
However, the Pakistanis gathered themselves and drew further away in the last five minutes as Abbas converted apenalty corner and Khalid made it 5-2.
Later, holders and Olympic gold medallists Hollandvirtually assured themselves of a berth in the final with a hard-fought 6-3 winagainst Argentina.
The result took the Dutch tally to 10 points from threewins and a draw, while Argentina suffered their second defeat in four outings toremain on six. The home team have only to play the young German team in theirconcluding league fixture on Saturday.
The fast improving Dutch had to weather some difficult spells in thefirst-half when Argentina gave back as good as they received. But afterovercoming the initial resistance, the Dutch proceeded to dictate terms to winquite handily.
Ronald Brouwer (15th, 47th), Taeke Taekema (19th), Matthijs Brouwer (30th),Karel Klaver (45th) and Rob Reckers (60th) struck for the Dutch, while forArgentina, Jorge Lombi (28, 33rd), Mattias Paredes (8th) scored.
PTI
