LAHORE, Dec 11: In a last-ditch effort to salvage their bruised pride, Pakistan lock horns with arch-rivals India for the Champions Trophy bronze medal on Sunday.
The game will be the mirror-image of the previous two editions when Pakistan first lost to neighbours in the league matches before winning the third place playoffs. Pakistan had lost to India 2-3 in a league game in 2002 in Cologne and then edged past the arch-foes 4-3 to win the bronze.
Likewise, Pakistan were hammered by the Indians 4-7 in a league match before green-shirts squeezed past 4-3 to clinch third place in Amstelveen last year.
As the Indians will be looking for revenge, Pakistan will be in action for a face-saving victory to give the home fans some solace after crumbling in two crunch matches.
While it was easy sailing against Germany and New Zealand to score 3-1 victories, Pakistan buckled under pressure and lost 1-4 when they faced the defending champions The Netherlands.
The home side proved it could only stand against mediocre outfits when it was tamed by Spain who secured first-ever victory against Pakistan in the Trophy, beating the hosts 3-0.
Notorious for surrendering under pressure, things have become lot more difficult for the Pakistanis who are plagued by poor finishing and unimpressive penalty corner conversions despite having world's best Sohail Abbas.
"We were expecting better performance by our forwards after initial games. But now the tournament is about to wrap up and we still do not see any coordination in the forward-line.
"We have to win to avoid more humiliation as we can't afford more embarrassment. A win against Indians is the only thing we will be fighting for. We have no option now," said Pakistan captain Waseem Ahmad.
While Sohail has remained off target when the going got tough, especially against the Dutch, the Spaniards and even against India in the league games, Waseem considered Indians better in short corners having promising Sandeep Singh.
"Our penalty corner conversion was less than satisfactory against India in league matches while the Indians were better against us in that department. At the moment, Indians seem to be in a better position than us in short corners," he opined.
But Sohail, the man on whom the team always rely heavily, did not give any particular reason for his not-so-impressive performance, saying "a player cannot always score goals."
"There is nothing wrong with my physical fitness. The things is that a player cannot score goals all the time. All I can say is that we will be playing for a win tomorrow," said Sohail.
However, absence of India number one goalkeeper Adrian D'Souza, who was stretchered off after pulling his hamstring playing New Zealand on Friday, might makes a difference.
India team manager Balraj Aher said doctor had been consulted and the team management would decide on Sunday morning before the match whether D'Souza should be fielded against Pakistan.
"We have consulted doctor and medical reports are awaited. It will be too early to offer a comment on this one. We will take decision about D'Souza tomorrow morning," the official told Dawn.
India coach Gerhard Rach said he had always been looking for a match against Pakistan which generated crowd in huge numbers.
"It is good to play Pakistan. Matches between India and Pakistan always pull crowd to the stadium," he said.
The coach, however, opined both teams had 50-50 chance to win the game and his side would be trying to defeat hosts, although he considered Pakistan a better side.
