Tokyo. The Indian hockey team had a chance to play an Olympic final and win a gold medal for the first time since the 1980 Moscow Olympics, but lost the semi-final match 2-5 at the hands of Belgium. Now the Indian team will try to win bronze, which it last won in 1972 Munich Olympics. In this match played on the OE Hockey Stadium North pitch, India were at one time leading 2-1, but on the basis of a superb hat-trick of Alexander Hendricks (19th, 49th, 53rd), one of the world’s most dangerous drake flickers, the defending world champion Belgium Forced India to unilateral defeat.
Belgium has reached the final for the second time in a row. However, she has not won gold so far. In the final of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, they were defeated by Argentina 2-4.
The Indian team, which won the eighth gold of its Olympic history in 1980, will now have to fight for the bronze. Who will play this match for India, it will be decided after the second semi-final between Germany and Australia. At the same time, the winner of this match will face Belgium.
However, the first goal of the match came from Belgium. The goal was scored by Loic Fannie Lupert in the second minute from a penalty corner. By the time the match started, India was behind.
The Indian team was under pressure. But after coming out of this pressure, Harmanpreet Singh brought excitement to the match by scoring a goal in the seventh minute. Harmanpreet scored this goal from the penalty corner. Now the score was 1-1.
After this, captain Mandeep Singh himself took the lead and through a fine field goal in the ninth minute to put India 2-1 ahead.
After falling behind in the first quarter, Belgium stepped up their attack to equalize. In this sequence, he got success in the 19th minute. Alexander Robbie Hendricks scored from a penalty corner to make the score 2-2.
No goals were scored in the third quarter. Belgium suddenly picked up the pace in the fourth quarter and Hendricks scored a penalty corner in the 49th minute to give them a 3-2 lead. By the start of the third quarter and the fourth quarter, Belgium had scored 7 penalty corners.
At the last moment, there was a breach in India’s defense line. Belgium were getting penalty corners continuously. In the same sequence, he scored a penalty stroke in the 53rd minute, on which Hendricks scored a goal to ensure his team’s victory by 4-2.
The Belgian team did not stop even after this and scored another goal in the last minute to take a 5-2 lead. Dominic Dohmann scored the goal for Belgium in the 60th minute.
India defeated Netherlands 2-1 in the bronze medal bout after losing the semi-final match 0-2 to Pakistan at the Munich Olympics. After this, India won the gold directly in Moscow, but for the last 41 years, India’s bag is empty. Now it remains to be seen whether bronze also comes in this bag or not.
(IANS)
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