India defeated Great Britain 3-1 in the Men’s Hockey quarterfinal to earn a spot in the semifinals at the Tokyo Olympics. The Manpreet Singh-led side will face off against the 2018 World Champions Belgium in the semifinals on Tuesday. This will be the first Olympics semifinal that India will play in 49 years since the 1972 Munich Olympics that the eight-time Olympic Champions would be playing in the semifinals of men’s hockey in the multi-sport event. In 1972, India had lost to Pakistan in the semis.
While India had won the gold medal defeating Spain in the final in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, there were no semifinals at that time and the two teams from the round-robin stage had competed in the final.
Tokyo 2020 Highlights: India vs Great Britain Quarterfinal
In the match, India made the most of the defensive errors from Great Britain early on in the match. A casual effort from the Britain defender allowed Simranjeet Singh to put his stack and steal the ball. He passed it to Dilpreet Singh who was not being covered by anyone and the youngster scored his 2nd goal in Tokyo.
The second goal came at the start of the second quarter as Indian midfield intercepted a pass from Britain and made a long pass to Gurjant Singh inside the circle. Gurjant picked the ball, twisted, turned, and struck it into the nets to double India’s lead.
India’s defence remained dominant for most of the match of the second and third quarter, as Britain tried to keep possession and put pressure on coach Graham Reid’s side. A penalty corner in the final few seconds of the third quarter allowed Sam Ward to get a goal back, pushing India in for a nervy final 15 minutes.
When India captain Manpreet Singh was handed a yellow card, and India went one man down, it looked as if Britain might push the match to a shootout. But Hardik Singh produced a moment of brilliance with 3.25 left on the clock, as he scored another goal to extend India’s lead to 3-1.
Despite repeated attempts, Britain were unable to get another clock in the final three minutes and were eliminated. Indian players indulged in emptional celebrations on the turf, having made it to the semifinals.
It has been a good journey for India men’s hockey team in Tokyo Olympics so far, defeating New Zealand 3-2 in their opening group game, and then picking up wins over Germany (2-0), Spain (3-1), Argentina (3-1), and Japan (5-3) in the group matches. Barring the 7-1 defeat against Australia, India have won all their games so far.
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