Wellen hat trick puts Germany through in goal-fest

Germany – Poland (3-2)
Germany overcame a second quarter stutter to beat Poland and advance to the knock-out stages of the European Championships in a hugely entertaining, goal-fest.

Niklas Wellen was the key man, netting three times, his first coming in the 13th minute after Lukas Windfeder had opened the scoring from a corner.

Wellen slotted home for 3-0 from Mat Grambusch’s brilliant pass and things all looked to be progressing well for Germany. But Poland rallied and were back in the game when Mikolaj Gumny cleaned up a rebound. Maciej Janiszewski then reduced the gap to one with a back post tip-in.

Wellen, however, pumped home a backhand shot two minutes into the second half for 4-2 and Dieter Linnekogel’s corner flick made the game safer. Tobias Hauke added the sixth.

Mateusz Poltaszewski got another one back with ten minutes to go into an open goal as Germany pursued extra goals with an extra goalkeeper. In the late stages, Christopher Ruhr hit the crossbar from a stroke. His Rot-Weiss Koln team mate Marco Miltkau completed the victory with a seventh goal two minutes from the end.

Speaking afterwards, Tobias Hauke said he was: “happy with the result and through to the semis. That’s what we wanted from today. Like the last two games, you saw some minutes of good hockey and others where we didn’t concentrate so much.

“For the semis, we will have to improve because if we play like the other games, it will be really hard against Holland or Belgium.

“They are both playing really well, it was a brilliant game the other evening from both sides. It would be cool to play in the evening against the Netherlands but Belgium is also no problem – we will take whatever comes along.”

Germany – Poland (3-2)
12’ Lukas Windfeder 1-0 (pc)
13’ Niklas Wellen 2-0
21’ Niklas Wellen 3-0
24’ Mikolaj Gumny 3-1
29’ Maciej Janiszewski 3-2
32’ Niklas Wellen 4-2
39’ Dieter Linnekogel 5-2
48’ Tobias Hauke 6-2
50′ Mateusz Poltaszewski 6-3
59′ Marco Miltkau 7-3

Umpires: J van ‘t Hek (NED), Michael Eilmer (AUT)

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