Spain beat Germany 4-1

Champions Trophy winners Spain came strongly from behind to demolish world champions Germany 4-1 in the Rabo Trophy hockey tournament in Amstelveen.

After a barren first half Germany opened the scoring when Nico Sonnenschen pushed in from a goalmouth melee in the 48th minute.

Stung by this reversal, Spain put in an accelerated tempo to outclass their opponents yesterday. Quick positional interchanges and off the ball running by Spain had the Germans fall back and they were made to pay the penalty.

The equaliser came from an indirect penalty corner scored by Victor Sojo in the 54th minute, and two minutes later they took the lead when Santi Freixa pushed past the towering German custodian Christian Schulte.

Eduard Tubau scored the third Spanish goal when he struck a crisp angular shot in the 68th minute, virtually converting this session to one way traffic.

Albert Sala rubbed salt to Germany's wounds when he found the mark with a counter attack the next minute to round off the tally.

Spain with seven points from their pool engagements will have to wait for the Pakistan and Germany clash on Friday to know the lineup for Sunday's final.

If Pakistan win, they will also have seven points and the goal difference will come into play. However, to make it for the final, Pakistan will have to win by a minimum of three goals.