CHAMPIONS TROPHY: German blitz too strong for England

OLYMPIC champions Germany blew England away in seven devastating minutes to hand Jason Lee's men a defeat in their opening ABN AMRO Champions Trophy clash in Monchengladbach.

ON TARGET: Ashley Jackson scores England’s first goal against Germany from a 45th minute penalty corner (hockeyimages.co.uk)

England found themselves 4-0 down at half-time after the hosts bagged three goals in the final seven minutes of the first half, only to rally in the second half and close restore some respectability with a 4-2 loss.

Oskar Deecke put Germany on their way after just five minutes before the onslaught saw Jan-Marco Montag 28, Martin Haner and Benjamin Wess all find the net with penalty corners.

Ashley Jackson, the World Young Player of the Year, restored some English pride with two second-half efforts but Germany were well worth their victory.

But England team manager Peter Nicholson believes there are positives to take after his side's second-half showing.

 "We obviously had a very slow start," he said.  "We weren't up with the intensity of the game in the first 20 minutes and that put us on the back foot. 

"We made individual errors in the first half, turning the ball over and putting ourselves under a bit of pressure.

"In the second half we played much more like we can.  We built good momentum and actually missed a couple of good opportunities to score but it was always going to be difficult to pull the goals back."

England's second match is against the Netherlands on Sunday.