Pakistan warded off a spirited challenge from Germany to register a 3-1 victory in their opening match of the men's Champions Trophy hockey tournament in Lahore on Saturday.

Egged by thousands of supporters, the hosts scored through Sohail Abbas (34^th minute), Shaqeel Abbasi (52nd) and Kashif Jawad (64th) to emerge deserving winners.

Germany's lone goal came through Montag Jan-Marco, who scored five minutes into the second half.

Germany, who are without several of their established players, put up a tough fight to deny Pakistan any leeway in the early part of the match before Sohail's goal just before half-time.

In fact, the Olympic bronze medallists made some good moves and even came close to taking the lead.

In the 28th minute, Florian Keller made a fine attempt but goalkeeper Salman Akbar did well to thwart him.

Oliver Hentschel's second shot from a rebound then went high over the goal.

Sohail, the world's leading goal scorer, gave Pakistan the lead with his trademark drag flick but that setback failed to dampen the morale of the Germans.

Germany came back from the break with determination and restored parity four minutes after the break with Jan-Marco scoring from a penalty-corner.

But Pakistan shut the door on the Germans as they scored twice in 12 minutes, Abbasi deflecting in a sharp shot from Sohail Abbas and Jawad converting a penalty-corner.

Germany play Spain while Pakistan take on New Zealand on Sunday.

In the earlier matches, defending champions The Netherlands beat New Zealand 5-2 while Spain routed India 4-0.