England go down 4-1 to Germany in hockey semis

Hopes were high after an impressive group stage campaign in New Delhi, which saw them become the first to qualify for the last four thanks to victories over favourites Australia, India. Pakistan and South Africa.

But they fell behind to Jan-Marco Montag's goal from a short corner after six minutes and that became 2-0 five minutes later through Oliver Korn.

Richard Smith pulled one back for England, but Martin Haner re-established Germany's two-goal advantage just before the break and Linus Butt rounded off the scoring from a penalty corner.

Germany will face either Australia or Holland in the final, with the losers of that match playing England for the bronze medal.

England coach Jason Lee said: "I'm quite disappointed with the performance.

"We were two-nil down through mistakes of our own making within about 10 minutes."

"We had some good play for long periods, but, because we were pushing forwards, we opened ourselves up. That's why the scoreline got away from us," added Lee.

"We didn't hit the performance we wanted and when you do that against Germany, you're always going to struggle," added England's James Tindall.

"If our game had been at its top level today, we could have easily won the game.

"It's all well and good getting to semi-finals but we want to be England the world champions, the Olympic champions."