The European Champions Germany stunned the reigning Asian Games Gold medallist India 1-0 at the Kalinga Stadium Bhubanshwar, on the opening day of the Bhubaneswar Champions Trophy.

A heart-breaking last minute goal emanated from the stick of Florian Fuchs, making Germany bag full 3-points from a game that remained goal-less up till 40 seconds left in the clock.

With just 40 seconds to remain, Fuchs beat PR Sreejesh on an one-on-one tackle at the Indian goalmouth. A hard-hit by him from an acute angle denied India a crucial point, had the match ended in a draw.

In the evenly contested encounter where misses galore, right from the word go both Germany and India looked off-colour.

While on one hand India’s attacks looked unconvincing, even Germany didn’t fare any better and missed scoring on two penalty corners they got in a row in the 7th minute. On the first one, they couldn’t trap the injection correctly and the second one was misdirected.

An aggressive appeal to the umpire in the 14th minute by the Indians claiming a foul by a German defender earned them a penalty corner. However, Gurjinder’s flick was blocked head-on by the German keeper, Nicolas Jacobi.

Although each Indian charge-down towards the German cage was complimented by a deafening cheer from the 7000-plus crowd at the Kalinga Stadium, it ended up meeting an impenetrable German wall. On the handful chances India got, not a single one posed a considerable threat.

The highlight of the game was the numerous saves made by the Wall of Indian Hockey, their custodian, PR Sreejesh. Apart from the various head-on saves, the best of the game came from him in the 36th minute. A deflection by an acrobatic Sreejesh denied the four-time Olympics Gold medallist Germany, a sure goal coming from a penalty corner, their third one in the game.

He bagged a much-deserving ‘Man of the Match’ for his outstanding work under the cage.

India earned a few half-hearted chances. In the 20th minute, Sardar charged down on the center-left flank but his angle to the German post was blocked by Jacobi just in time.

Two-time World Champions Germany remained guilty of numerous misdirected hits and poor finish. Christopher Ruhr, Jonas Gomoll and Martin Zwicker took shots at the Indian post at various occasions but none of them looked threatening.

At the penalty corner in the 48th minute, Germany looked lax in their stop and flick. Raghunath was quick enough to block the view and when a gentle push reached Sreejesh, he could comfortably push it away.

India got only one penalty corner compared to four for Germany. Neither did succeed with it.

India stand third in the pool currently and will now take on Argentina, placed last in the pool, on Sunday at 1930hrs.