Tokyo Olympics: Great Britain begin women's hockey title defence with loss to Germany

Great Britain's women began their Olympic hockey title defence in disappointing fashion with a 2-1 defeat by Germany in Pool A in Tokyo.

Sarah Jones gave GB the lead from close range before Germany hit back through a scuffed Viktoria Huse penalty that sent Maddie Hinch the wrong way.

Germany grew in confidence and took the lead as Charlotte Stapenhorst fired home from Pia Maertens' pass.

Great Britain face South Africa on Monday at 10:30 BST.

While GB played aggressively and won three successive penalty corners in the final quarter, they were unable to break through the German defence.

The top four teams from each of the two groups of six will progress to the knockout stage.

Great Britain captain Hollie Pearne-Webb: "We'll go back, look at the stats and see that was a really dominant performance. In one way it's really disappointing because on balance of play, the points should have been ours. However, we didn't make sure it was three points.

"We had loads of corners and that's the difference, at both ends. We need to go back and tighten up those areas. Overall, it was really positive.

"There was a danger we could have come out and been nervous with an inexperienced group but we started really, really confidently. We had them on the back foot and momentum was in our favour. It was a really pleasing start.

"Now we're into the tournament, game one's out of the way. We've got South Africa tomorrow and we need to take the confidence from the dominance we showed today and take that into tomorrow's game, to tweak a few things."

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