With both teams out of contention for the top two places, Pakistan’s young team took the game to the Egyptians from the first whistle in their final Group match in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament in Ipoh yesterday evening.
The speedy Pakistanis went ahead through a penalty stroke converted by Abdul Rana early in the 11th minute.
This was followed by Pakistan scoring their second goal through another penalty corner through Sufyan Muhammad Khan in the 26th minute.
They kept up the pressure after the interval and further improved the goal margin due to a defensive mistake by their opponents to make it 3-0 by Arshad Liaqat in the 39th minute.
Sufyan Muhammad scored his second goal in the match for goal number in the 45th minute through third penalty corner in the game.
Against the flow of the game Egypt managed to score a consolation goal through a penalty corner by Mohamed Ragab in the 51st minute through their fourth penalty corner to see the game end at 4-1.
Sufyan was judged the Man-of-the-Match.
EGYPT: ZAMAN TAHIR (COACH)
“We came here for experience and play in high performance matches and we certainly got that.
“The team performed well in patches and we have to learn to be more consistent in international matches.
“There is still a lot for us to learn and it is a process.”
PAKISTAN: SIEGFRIED AIKMAN
“Am happy with result but not with performance.
“We still made some silly mistakes by relying on long balls, high balls and over dribbling. It is the trademark of Pakistan hockey, but I am trying to blend Asian hockey with European hockey and we have drop some of our old style of play.
“It takes time, but considering the short time we had for preparations coming here with basically a young team, I feel we are on the right path.
“Now we have to step up our performance from this match in our 3rd and 4th placing match be it Malaysia or Japan.”