ALCALA REAL, Aug 2: Pakistan lifted Pre-Olympics warm-up Tri-nation trophy beating Spain 3-1 due to Sohail Abbas who scored two goals on two short corners on Monday.

The tournament featured Argentina, Spain besides Pakistan. Spain took second position with a win and a loss while Argentina came on last with one draw and one loss.

Each team played one match against each other in the championship. Pakistan drew with Argentina 2-2 earlier on Sunday. However, Pakistan on Monday played with totally different stratgey and attitude and using the pace of Spainiards they were able to overcome them.

Pakistan took an early lead in the 3rd minute of the game through Sohail who successfully coverted a short corner. Spain's Edward Tabau Cutal taking full advantage of Zeeshan Ashraf's mistake in the 10th minute to score the equaliser made it 1-1. The score remained the same till the end of first half.

Pakistan regained the lead in the 50th minute 2-1 when they were awarded their second penalty corner which was duly availed by Sohail who made no mistake in pushing the ball into the net.

After having 2-1 lead Pakistan went on defensive and Spain despite having the ball in possession most of the time failed to score. Spain's several attempts to goal were brilliantly saved by Salman Akbar who showed an outstanding game.

Pakistan put last nail in the coffin of Spainiards when Kashif Javed found a gap in the rival defence in the 65th minute of the game and made it 3-1. Salman Akbar was awarded the best goalkeeper's award while Rodrigo Garza Barbero from Spain was presented by best player award for scoring most goals.

Pakistan will have practise sessions on Tuesday and after then they will leave for Barcelona for 10 days rest and will play against New Zealand at Athens on Aug 11. Meanwhile, Pakistan's assistant coach, Tahir Zaman said that the boys were showing tremendous improvement mentally and physically day by day and was confident of bringing back lost glories to Pakistan by winning gold medal in Athens Olympics.

"Boys are showing positive change in their atitude and the mental toughness they had shown during tri-nation tournament was splendid", he claimed. Tahir said that in the past the boys did not have the ability to sustain the pressure during crucial moments but now the situation was different and the exercises planned now showing positive signs on boys. "No doubt coach has to play very important role in the team preparation during matches" he remarked when asked the importance of a coach. -PPI