Bhubaneshwar: Germany defeated Belgium the finals of the FIH Men's Hockey World Cup to emerge as the champions at the Kalinga Stadium in Odisha on Sunday. While field goals from 2018 champions Florent van Aubel and Tanguy Cosyns in the 9th and the 10th minutes of the opening quarter helped Belgium take the lead, Germany still managed to come back from behind and clinch their third title.

For Germany, Niklas Wellen and Peillat Gonzalo netted a goal in the first half as they converted their respective penalty corners before Mats Grambusch put them in the lead. However, a late goal from The Red Lions' Tom Boon helped them equalise and push the match into a penalty shootout. While both Belgium and Netherlands scored off their first penalty stroke, Belgium missed their second strke. In turn, the German penalty taker did manage to score to get an early advantage. The Red Lions then failed to covert their third penalty stoke as well. But this time around Germany also missed.

In the fourth attemt Belgium scored and Germany did not let their advantage get away as they scored too. In the fifth attempt which was a must-score one for Belgium, they did manage to find the back of the net and Grambusch whose attempt could have handed Germany their title also missed. The match was further pushed into a sudden death.

Germany went first in the sudden death and they scored once again. In response though, Belgium too scored to keep the team alive. In the second round of the sudden death, Germany scored to take a 5-4 lead but Belgium cannot score which handed Germany their third World Cup title.

Germany's Niklas Wellen Bags Best Player of Hockey World Cup 2023 Award

Niklas Wellen, Hannes Müller, and Thies Prinz scored for Die Honamas in the penalty shootout while Florent van Aubel, Tanguy Cosyns and Antoine Kina were the goal scorers for Belgium in the shootout. While Wellen and Prinz scored twice for Germany in the penalty stroke at the end, Aubel netted two goals for Belgium but Cosyns could not score on the second attempt.

Niklas Wellen won both the Best Player and Best Forward of the tournament after the match.