LAHORE, Dec 10: Pakistan will be looking for a face- saving victory over India in the bronze medal match as consolation at Champions Trophy hockey on Sunday. Waseem Ahmad, Pakistan skipper, said only a win against arch- rivals could save his side from more humiliation as the team had failed to click during the entire tournament.

"We have to win the game against India for face-saving. That's the only thing. We do not have any choice," Waseem told Dawn after 3-0 defeat to Spain. The midfielder was disappointed over the performance of the forwards, saying the forward-line had to deliver or it would be a disaster.

"We were expecting our forwards will recover after initial matches but they remain pathetic. Now there is no room for more bad performance. We have to deliver against India or will be ruined," he said.

Waseem agreed although Pakistan had world's best penalty corner striker in Sohail Abbas, Indians would be cancelling out the advantage since they also had promising short corner expert Sandeep Singh.

"Indeed we have Sohail, but I believe Indians are in a better position. Sandeep was better against us as India got one goal off two penalty corners, while we could score only once off five in the previous game," he opined.

However, the Indians might not be having services of number one goalkeeper Adrian D'Souza who was stretchered off after injuring his hamstring during game against New Zealand.

"D'Souza injured his hamstring and we will be taking the decision whether we should field him against Pakistan. It will be better to rest him if he is not fit rather than fielding him despite injury," India assistant coach Jagbir Singh said.

India coach Gerhard Rach said match against Pakistan would be good for hockey and he had always been looking to play hosts that attracted huge crowd. "Pakistan are a better side. There is 50-50 chance. Any team could win the game. We will try our best to win," he said at a post-match press conference.

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