India's old habit of conceding a last-minute goal returned to cost them a 1-0 defeat to Olympic champions Germany in the teams' Champions Trophy opener in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.
Florian Fuchs' field goal with 40 seconds to full-time helped the Germans clinch full points in the Pool B encounter when it looked almost certain that the teams would bag a point each at the end of fourth quarter under the new rules that have reduced the game to 60 minutes.
But Indians have their poor finishing to blame for losing and should thank goalkeeper PR Sreejesh for keeping them in the game until that heart-breaker in the final minute.
The hosts enjoyed more attacking spells than the visitors but due to some poor skills from the forward-line at the end of some promising moves, the Indians failed to get on the scoresheet.
Playing in front of a 5000 capacity crowd at the Kalinga Stadium, India's first attack from the right by SV Sunil invited loud cheers, letting the Germans know that the hosts were playing with more than just 11 men on the field.
Akashdeep got the first shot on goal in the match as early as the sixth minute; however, he failed to find the mark. But it was the Germans whogot the first clear sighter by way of back-to-back penalty corners in the 8th minute, but they made a hash of it.
The first quarter went goal-less and the Asian Games gold medallists almost broke the deadlock in the 18th minute when Dharamvir Singh and Akashdeep combined well but the latter failed to receive the ball cleanly in the striking circle.
The Olympic champions then almost scored the winner four minutes before the end of the second quarter, but a brilliant kick save by Sreejesh kept it 0-0 at half-time.
The third quarter too began on an attacking note, with the Germans getting another penalty corner in the 34th minute, but an acrobatic diving save by Sreejesh kept India in the game and get to third break of the match at nil-nil.
The last 15 minutes of the game saw the teams at their slowest in the match, and that's perhaps where India lost with Fuchs pouncing on the window he got in the final minute to score an opportunistic field goal and bring the curtains down.
India, who have never won the Champions Trophy, next take on Argentina on Sunday at 1930 IST.
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