After drawing the first match and winning the second, three time champions Pakistan play their next match against Great Britain in the 2012 London Olympic Games at Riverbank Arena on Friday (August 3). This group A match will start at 20.00 hours (PST).
This will be the 11th match between Pakistan and Great Britain in Olympic Hockey. Pakistan has a good record against Great Britain in Olympic Hockey. They have won six, drew one and lost three against the European team.
After losing the first two matches, Pakistan had an upper hand in next six consecutive matches against Great Britain in Olympic Games. Great Britain defeated Pakistan 4-2 when two teams played each other at the Beijing Olympics 2008.
Pakistan is currently ranked eighth in the FIH World Ranking while Great Britain ranks fourth in the latest ranking.
The Great Britain team plays and competes 12 months before every Olympics, the rest of the time the players are with England, Wales or Scotland. Of the trio, England is the powerhouse, weighing in at No. 4 in the FIH World Ranking a precious 12 points ahead of Spain. Great Britain has participated in an impressive 16 Olympics, with five medals to their credit, but most of the medals are from decades ago, with the most recent hardware haul coming in 1988. Since a fifth-place showing in Beijing the team has had success at other events. In 2009, England claimed the European title for the first time ever and a Champions Trophy silver medal followed in 2010 with European bronze capping the recent feats in 2011.
STARS TO WATCH:
Captain Barry Middleton is the heart and soul of the Great Britain team. Not only is he the most-capped player with 259 showings, he is also the man with the scoring touch, ranked third on the team with 77 goals. Ashley Jackson and James Tindall are also part of the 70+ goal club for Great Britain. Goaltender James Fair is among the best in the game when he is on his game. In the luck of the Irish category, is Iain Lewers, who changed his allegiance a few years ago from Irish to English and will be with Team GB at the Games. It was particularly lucky as Ireland missed making the Games in the last 10 seconds of their Qualifier final against Korea
PAKISTAN-BRITAIN IN OLYMPICS:
Year, Venue, Round, Result, Score
1948 London Semi final Britain beat Pakistan 2-0
1952 Helsinki Third place Britain beat Pakistan 2-1
1956 Melbourne Group match Pakistan beat Britain 3-2
1964 Tokyo Group match Pakistan beat Britain 1-0
1968 Mexico Group match Pakistan beat Britain 2-1
1984 Los Angeles Group match Pakistan drew Britain 0-0
1996 Atlanta Qualification Pakistan beat Britain 2-1
2000 Sydney Group match Pakistan beat Britain 8-1
2004 Athens Group match Pakistan beat Britain 8-2
2008 Beijing Group mach Britain beat Pakistan 4-
I hope pakistan wins the matcg against GB by a good margin.The green Shirts are in a good form again after a long time.But I donot unerestimate GB.It has the advantage of playing on home ground and has a good number of fine players.
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