Asian giants Korea and Pakistan scored upset wins over world-number-one team Australia and highly ranked Spain in a night of surprises at the Champions Trophy here Friday. Korea matched the mighty Australians, the reigning Olympic champions, stride for stride and scored an all-important goal through Jang Jong-hyun in the 55th minute.
Earlier, Pakistan also registered an upset when they outplayed world-number-four Spain, one of the fancied sides in the tournament, winning 2-0 with a polished display.
However, hot favourites the Netherlands bucked the trend and continued their blistering pace with a classy 3-1 win over hosts Malaysia, while world champions Germany also picked up a second victory, beating Britain 4-0.
Korea thoroughly deserved their narrow victory, standing firm in defence despite many onslaughts from the Aussies. The Koreans made it count when a counter-attack in the 55th minute earned them a penalty corner and Jong-hyun slammed home.
Korean coach Cho Myung-jun said he was surprised with the victory, adding that one factor could have been that Australia were tired after Thursday's late rain-delayed win over Malaysia.
Netherlands, the defending champions, went behind early in their game as Malaysia took a shock lead through Kelvinder Singh in the 18th minute. But the Dutch soon established control and in quick succession blasted replies through Taeke Taekema, Rob Reckers and Ronald Brouwer, and would have had more if not for the brilliance of the Malaysian goalkeeper.
In an earlier match, former tournament champions Pakistan recovered from a shaky start to upset Spain 2-0 thanks to a brilliant display by young forward Waqas Sharif, who netted a goal and made another.
After their failure in the recent Asian Cup, which was claimed by India, Pakistan are playing here with an inexperienced side, but Spain looked to be struggling to cope with the heat. As on Thursday, when they held Korea to a 2-2 draw, Spain - runners-up at the recent European Championships - controlled the match at the start but began to wilt as it wore on.
Against Pakistan, they paid the price for not finishing off the chances that came their way. Waqas, who also scored against Germany Thursday, broke through and thumped home a superb cross by team-mate Ali Akhtar in the 55th minute.
Pakistan coach Manzoor-ul Hassan said his side were fired up to do better after their defeat to Germany Thursday. "First of all I'm really happy with the performances of my team and the boys... as we didn't play well last night," he said.
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