Men's Champions Trophy
Venue: Monchengladbach, Germany Dates: 31 July - 8 August
Coverage: Match reports and highlights on the BBC Sport website

England failed to recover from a first-half mauling as they lost their Champions Trophy opener 4-2 to Germany.

The hosts raced into a commanding 4-0 half-time lead as Glenn Kirkham's captaincy debut began disastrously.

Ten minutes after the restart Ashley Jackson converted a penalty corner to give England a glimmer of hope.

And five minutes from time he pounced on a rebound to add more respectability to the scoreline but a full-blown England comeback did not materialise.

Afterwards, England manager Peter Nicholson rued his team's slow start. "We weren't up with the intensity of the game in the first 20 minutes and that put us on the back foot," he said.

"We made individual errors in the first half, turning the ball over and putting ourselves under a bit of pressure.

"In the second half, we played much more like we can. We built good momentum and actually missed a couple of good opportunities to score but it was always going to be difficult to pull the goals back."

The Germans, who defeated England 4-1 in the World Cup semi-finals in March to avenge England's 2009 EuroHockey Nations final victory, go top of the pool on three points.

606: DEBATE Your views on the action in Monchengladbach

After all six teams have played each other, the top two sides qualify for the Monchengladbach tournament's final on 8 August.

The third and fourth, and fifth and sixth-placed teams will face each other to decide the remaining classifications in the annual competition, international hockey's third most prestigious event behind the World Cup and the Olympics.

In last year's tournament in Melbourne, England finished fifth in the pool before losing 5-2 in a play-off to Spain to wind up last.

England, minus usual captain Barry Middleton who is out with a broken toe, next take on Spain on Sunday.

They then face defending champions Australia on Tuesday, the Netherlands on Thursday before completing their round robin schedule against New Zealand next Saturday.

Earlier this month, England's women's team won the nation's first Champions Trophy medal when they beat Germany in the bronze medal play-off in Nottingham.

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