Hockey Series Open: Wales fail to fire in defeat by Austria
- Published
Michael Korper helped Austria win the 2018 Indoor World Cup and Eurohockey titles
Wales suffered a convincing 3-0 defeat by Austria at the Hockey Series Open in Croatia.
Zak Jones' side rarely threatened against opponents five places above them in the world rankings.
Dominic Uher opened the scoring before Michael Korper twice fired in from penalty corners.
Wales can still progress to the next round as one of the best two teams and face Switzerland on Thursday, 28 June (18.30 BST).
Wales came into the game full of confidence following their opening 6-1 win over Slovakia.
But they failed to halt Uher's run from the left as he cut inside before firing past James Fortnam in the final seconds of the first period.
In a game of few chances, Gareth Furlong missed twice in quick succession from penalty corners during the second period.
Korper showed how it is done with goals in the 41st and 54th minutes to take Austria top of the pool, ahead of Wales on goal-difference.
Wales' Owain Dolan-Gray, who had scored in their opening win, said: "With a team like Austria who have some very good players, they're very clinical and they took their chances and we just weren't quite good enough and didn't take our chances."