India men’s team lose to Belgium in semifinals, to play for the bronze medal at Tokyo Olympics
The Indian men’s national hockey team was defeated 5-2 by the winners of the World Cup and the Belgian national team No. 2 in the semifinals of the Olympic Games in Tokyo on Tuesday. Now the Indian team will be looking forward to the opportunity to compete for the bronze medal. The first half started on a fiery note, when the “Red Lions” made an early breakthrough in the 2nd minute, and Losik Lipert gave the winners of the World Cup a 1-0 advantage from a corner from a free kick.
The Indian side kept up with the pace of the game and earned their first PC in the 7th minute and Harmanpreet equalised for the World no.3 side to make it 1-1. It was his fifth goal in this Olympics. Just a minute later Mandeep Singh found the ball inside the opponent’s circle and struck past Vincent Vanasch through an immaculate tomahawk shot to lead by 2-1.
The Belgian side continued their barrage of attack throughout the 2nd quarter as they found opportunity a series of penalty corners. This time Alexander Hendrickx availed the chance to level things up at 2-2. At half-time things were drawn level at the Oi Hockey Stadium North Pitch.
In the 38th minute, Sumit was charged by Van Doren in the circle and India won a PC. Harmanpreet’s attempt was foiled by the Belgian first rusher. Nothing to separate the two teams by end of Q3.
Down in the last quarter, pressure mounted up for India as Belgium earned a flurry of PCs and Hendrickx scored his second with just 11 minutes left in the match, while India were down to 10-men because of Manpreet’s green card.
Things went beyond India’s control when Belgium won a penalty stroke and Hendrickx scored his hat-trick. Just 10 seconds before the full hooter, John John Dohmen scored the fifth for the Red Lions.
