TNT Sports
Germany do just enough
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Published 23/08/2004 at 18:56 GMT+1
World champions Germany squeezed their way into the semi-finals of the Olympic men's hockey tournament when they snatched a last-minute 2-2 draw with South Korea on Monday. Germany will now play either the Netherlands or Australia while the Koreans head t
Eurosport
Image credit: TNT Sports
South Korea, silver medallists in Sydney, needed to win to make the last four and fought hard to pull ahead again after Bjoern Emmerling tapped a cross in to equalise just before time.
But the road was too steep for a team that had already run itself ragged and the Koreans collapsed in disbelief as the hooter sounded, some of them sitting on the field for more than a minute, staring at their shoes.
"The same thing happened to us in Sydney when we failed to make the semis in the last minute. It's painful, but it's sport," said German captain Florian Kunz.
Korea led for most of the match, playing stunningly speedy hockey and finding space to nip through Germany's trademark tight defence. But once near the net, they could not convert any of their 11 field goal chances.
Lee Jung-seon scored both Korea's goals from short corners, one in each half.
But they were on the wrong end of Germany's last-minute luck with the first equaliser coming from a textbook drag flick from Christopher Zeller one second before halftime and the second from Emmerling four minutes before the hooter.
"It may sound strange but we were still confident with 10 minutes to go. We were pretty relaxed on the bench. We still had time," Emmerling said.
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