FIH Pro League: Dominant China outgun England women to cap off incredible year

Lausanne (Switzerland), Dec 4 Hosts China rallied from their first loss of the new FIH Hockey Pro League season a day earlier with a dominant 4-0 victory over a young England side in Hangzhou on Wednesday.

All the goals in their victory were scored by different players in a match that saw the Chinese wrapping up an incredible year, in which they claimed Olympic silver, on a successful note

China ended their long year with a convincing 4-0 win over a young English side, pressing effectively and making excellent use of penalty corner deflections. It was another exciting start as England created a clear scoring opportunity in the opening minute, and China put penalty corners over the bar in the third and seventh, according to information provided by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) on Wednesday.

The hosts enjoyed more possession throughout, and Zhang Ying had the best chance of the first quarter when a long ball found her unmarked at the top of the circle, only for Miriam Pritchard to close down the angle well to deflect the ball wide of the English goal.

China opened the scoring in the 17th minute, Chen Yang undoing Pritchard with a penalty corner deflection from the p-spot. England had a couple of chances to restore parity, threading a pass between the goalkeeper and a diving striker at the back post in the 20th minute, and having a penalty corner blocked by Chinese runners two minutes later.

The hosts then missed by inches from a recycled penalty corner in the 24th minute, but England immediately coughed up possession from the 16-yard hit and Ying completed the move with a tap-in to double their lead. He Jiangxin then gave China a 3-0 lead heading to half-time with another penalty corner deflection in the 28th minute.

China were very much in control in the second half of the match played at the same venue that hosted the 2022 Asian Games last year, holding possession well and pressuring the English into turnovers and errors. England found themselves defending desperately to save penalty corners in the 34th and 35th minutes and then missed a 37th-minute penalty corner of their own that might have given them a platform to fight back in the match.

The teams both missed with penalty corner variations at the end of the third quarter and as the clock ticked down in the fourth, China continued to dominate. The Chinese had the final say with a 55th-minute field goal, Chen Yi intercepting a poor overhead clearance and working the ball to Zhang Wenli who popped it beautifully to Chen Yujun behind the English defence for a neat finish.

Source: IANS