Smith scored the opener with a penalty corner goal

Olympic champions Germany battled back to beat European men's title holders England 3-2 in Moenchengladbach.

England went 2-0 up through an early penalty corner goal by Loughborough Students' Richard Smith and a near-post tap-in from Surbiton's Matt Daly.

But the Germans hit back to inflict a second successive loss on England, who will defend their EuroHockey Nations title later this month.

Germany beat England 4-2 in the opening tie of the two-match series on Tuesday.

And despite trailing early on, a mistimed challenge allowed Germany's Moritz Furste to pull the score back to 2-1 from the penalty spot a minute before the break.

Germany added two more in the second half, both coming from the stick of Florian Fuchs on the counter, to turn the match around and seal the two-game series.

EUROPEAN TITLE England beat Germany 5-3 to win their first EuroHockey Nations title in August 2009

England head coach Jason Lee said: "There were some pleasing aspects of play but also areas we need to work on. We have the opportunity to do that in two games against Spain next week before the Europeans begin.

"It has been a useful trip to Germany. While the results of the matches have been a little disappointing, we've played some very good hockey in patches and the gap [to the Germans] is narrowing."

England's men return home on Friday before heading to Spain next Tuesday for their final training camp ahead of the EuroHockey Nations Championships.

They are in the same EuroHockey pool as the Netherlands, France and Ireland, with the tournament in Moenchengladbach starting on 20 August.

The BBC will be covering the EuroHockey Nations Championships from Monchengladbach, which runs from 20-28 August. All of England's pool matches (men's and women's) will be shown on the BBC Sport website and on the red button.

Sunday 21 August - 0900 BST - England v Ireland

Monday 22 August - 1800 BST - England v Netherlands

Wednesday 24 August - 1200 BST - France v England

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