Tokyo Olympics: Indian men’s hockey team to face Germany for bronze
New Delhi: Indian men’s hockey team lost the first Olympic semifinals to Belgium 2-5 at the Oi Hockey stadium in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Now India will play against Germany, who defeated Austria in another semifinal, for the bronze medal on August 5.
The Belgian team started aggressively as drag-flicker Loick Luypaert scored for his team in the 2nd minute, whereas Arthur Van Doren deflected long Indian passes to give them 2 penalty corners.
A composed Indian team gained momentum and equalized the score at the 7th minute when Harmanpreet Singh drag-flicked a penalty corner while Mandeep Singh used reverse flick to lead against Belgium at the 8th minute.
Though Belgium received 3 penalty corners by the end of the 1st half, Amit Rohitdas calmly defended them by his tactful position between the goalkeeper PR Sreejesh and Luypaert. He even blocked Hendrickx in the 2nd half.
The 2nd quarter began with Olympic debutant Hendrickx equalizing scores 2-2 by converting the 5th penalty corner. On the other hand, Nilakanta Sharma, Dilpreet Singh, and Harmanpreet missed scoring opportunities.
However, the 3rd quarter was intense. Though India managed to save their penalties, Hendrickx scored twice in a row, leading Belgium with 2-4. John-John Domen gave a final hit to lead Belgium into the Olympic finals.
(Avya Mathur)
