Germany 3-0 Ireland: Irish Hockey World Cup hopes ended in final pool stage defeat

Ireland lost all three group matches in Amsterdam

Ireland's hopes of a top eight finish at the World Cup came to an end with a 3-0 defeat by Germany in their final Pool A game in Amsterdam.

This was the best performance of the tournament by an inexperienced Irish side but once again their lack of a proven goalscorer was costly.

The Germans did not create many chances but Nike Lorenz and Charlotte Staphenhorst were clinical when they needed to be while Sonja Zimmerman's penalty stroke late in the game just added flattery to the scoreline.

The damage to Ireland's campaign was done 24 hours earlier in the 1-0 defeat by Chile and while there were plenty of positives both individually and as a team, it will still hurt that they haven't made the quarter-final play-offs.

They'll now battle it out for ninth place which would still mean a finish above their world ranking of 12.

Ireland looked focused from the start and between the circles they once again matched their highest ranked opponents with Katie Mullan and Ellen Curran rising to the fore and Caoimhe Perdue chasing down every lost cause.

Creating clear-cut chances remains an issue, although Ireland did carve out one solid chance in the opening from Deirdre Duke's pass, with Mullan's shot forcing a save from Nathalie Kubalski.

The Germans started the second quarter strongly with Ayeisha McFerran making a double save to deny Charlotte Staphenhorst.

Germany have won two of their three Pool A games

It was from the award of their second penalty corner that Germany took the lead with Lorenz creating space for herself to drag the ball past McFerran.

Now having to chase the game, Ireland needed to respond and they did just that with Katie McKee's reverse shot going just the wrong side of the post and Michelle Carey's effort flying over the bar.

Ireland started the second half as they finished the first; Mullan's through ball fell to a diving Naomi Carroll who couldn't stretch far enough to direct it in while Zara Malseed couldn't pull the trigger on another chance.

Then Germany struck with a sucker punch that all but ended Ireland's World Cup journey. Having produced very little in attack one ball into the circle caused chaos and Staphenhorst was on hand to poach the second goal before Zimmerman added a late third.

Ireland pulled McFerran for the final quarter for the extra outfield player and Ireland battled to the final whistle, but could not threaten an unlikely late revival.

Ireland were never outclassed in this game and with so many of the squad gaining international experience as the tournament goes on, those are the positives that the coaching team have to take.

If they can find two wins to finish the tournament that will mean a lot of world ranking points and a springboard to the European qualifiers in August.